TMNT Gijinka
by kiosakishi
Summary: Gijinka Humanized. I've been wondering what it would be like if TMNT was missing the last T, meaning, what it would be like if all the characters looked like humans. I know the whole point of TMNT is them being turtles and I like them the way they are but still I just like to humanize stuff. The story is mixture of 2003 and 2012 series and the original TMNT comis.
1. Chapter 1: A whole new world

Prologue

My name is Leonardo. We made a wrong turn somewhere and now we're caught our backs to the wall in this trash strewn alley. Barring the way out are fifteen members of the Purple Dragons, the toughest street gang on the East Side. The only way they'll let us out of here is if we're dead. I hold my katana in a relaxed ready position. To my left, Donatello and Michelangelo follow suit with staff and nunchaku, Raphael guards my right side… I sense his body quivering with tense energy, waiting to be triggered into a savage, slashing release.

"You're dead freaks! Nobody messes with Purple Dragons!" a man shouts. "You kids should had just stayed home playing your ninja-games. But now that you have seen us, we have no other choice than eliminate you…" another man says, tapping a long pipe against his hand.

"Who are you calling a kid?!" Raph shouts and attacks the man. After he had made his move, we have no other choice than engage ourselves in to the battle.

Chapter 1: A whole new world

"I'm so bored…" a short boy, with freckles and curly, light orange hair, complained. "Then fight with me" a little bit taller, black haired teenager said while hitting a punching bag. "No! I don't want to fight with you!" short boy shouted. "What, are you scared of losing Mikey? Well, it's unavoidable though… Your lost that is…" the black haired boy teased.

"Raph, do you always have to pick a fight?" a blue eyed blonde said. He was called Leonardo. "Do I? Geez, I don't know… " Raph answered and kicked the sack. "It was a rhetorical question…" Leo sighed. "What's a rhetorical question?" Mikey asked.

A brown haired tall boy raised his head behind a vehicle that he was building. "Well, a rhetorical question is a question that…" he started to explain but was interrupted by Mikey's words: "Wait, Don! It… Seems like I'm not interested in it anymore"

"Argh, it's so boring!" Raph shouted and kicked so hard that the bag broke. "Hey! How many times do I have to tell you to quit breaking the punching bags? It's the third one on this week… " Donatello complained. "I think I'm heading out…" Raphael said.

"Wait a minute… You're not going anywhere. We're not allowed to leave this place without master Splinter's permission" Leo said. "Argh, quit being so goody-goody. What's the big deal anyways? It's not like I'm going to go over-ground, I'm just going to walk around the sewers, that's all…" Raph said and put a red mask on.

"Wait… I'm coming with you" Leo said and put his mask on as well. "What?!" Raph shouted a little bit surprised. "First you say that we're not allowed to go anywhere and now you're coming with me? I don't even need company…" Raph added. "If I let you go alone, you definitely would go over-ground" Leo said.

"Che, what's the big deal with the over-ground anyways?" Raph snarled."Not this again…"Don sighed. "You already know why. In order to be free, we have to stay hidden" Leo said. "Free? You call THIS freedom?" Raph shouted. "Ever since we were born we were forced to practice ninjutsu daily…" Raph said and was interrupted by Leo's words: "I thought you loved fighting"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Raphael shouted. "Geez, calm down dude" Mikey said opening a potato chip package. Raph glared Mikey who, just in case, took a cover behind the sofa. "I was saying… We're held down here like prisoners. Maybe if Master Splinter hadn't "saved" us we didn't have to live like this" Raph said bitterly.

"So you would prefer living as a laboratory rat?" Leo asked. "No! But do you really think that we'll be captured and brought back in the laboratory as soon as we left the sewers?" Raph said. "Well… We might get captured sooner or later…" Leo said.

"That's just a coward talk. If somebody tries to capture us, we just have to kick their asses" Raph said. "But sensei told us that we're not ready yet" Leo said. "We're goddamn fifteen already! We're not kids anymore!" Raphael shouted.

"Then quit acting like one!" Leo yelled back. "I'm out of here…" Raph said and run away. "Wait, you're not going anywhere!" Leo shouted and followed his brother. "Leave me alone already!" Raph shouted and threw a sai towards Leo. Leo countered it with his swords.

"Raphael! Leonardo! Where do you think you are going!?" a voice shouted. At the end of the tunnel, there was a man standing in the shadows. Raph gnashed his teeth. "Sensei" Leo shouted surprised. Their master walked towards them and as he became closer, Raphael turned his eyes away.

The left side of the man's face was covered with bandage. He was holding a walking stick on his left hand, which was pitch-black. As if it had been burned in to a coal. The man had long, thin, black beard. "I thought that I have told you not to leave the lair without my permission" Splinter said.

"I'm sorry Sensei. I just tried to stop Raph" Leo said bowing down. "Raphael…?" Master Splinter said with a demanding tone. "You're expecting me to apologize? Too bad, I'm not even sorry…" Raphael said frustrated. "Raph!" Leo shouted.

"Raphael, what's wrong? You're not acting like yourself…" Splinter said calmly. Raphael opened his mouth ready to shout again but then closed it and said: "No, I'm acting like myself, I'm just not acting like you want me to be…". He tried to walk away but Splinter took his hand and raised it on the air. "You're coming with me" Splinter said and dragged the disinclined teenager with him.

"Raphie is going to be scolded" Mikey sang jeeringly. "Mikey, you're going to be so dead…." Raph hissed. Master Splinter glanced at Raph who just turned his eyes away. Master Splinter led Raphael in Splinter's room, which looked a lot like the ones in Japanese houses. Master ordered Raph to sit on the one of the cushions on the floor and started making tea. When Master had finished, he gave a cup of tea to Raph.

"I always hated this stuff" Raphael said. "You seem to hate a lot of stuff" Splinter said, almost laughing. "Is there something that you want to talk about?" Splinter asked. Raphael remained silent. To avoid conversation he drank a little of the tea, even though it was bitter and tea leaves felt disgusting in the mouth.

After a short silence master Splinter asked: "Have you calmed down?" "Calm down? As if I could…" Raphael said but his voice had already become calm. It was almost like there was some kind of calming drug in the tea.

"Tell me. What is it that's haunting you?" Splinter asked. "I… It's no use, I know what's your answer anyways… " Raphael mumbled. "In that case, it wouldn't do any harm to say it aloud" Splinter said. Raphael took a deep breath.

"I want to go outside! Not in the sewers but outside as the over-ground. I think I'll turn crazy if I'm hold down here any longer…" Raphael said. Master Splinter had a stern expression on his face. "You're dismissed" he said. Raphael was a little bit puzzled. Did Sensei get mad at him? Raphael was petrified but after he noticed Splinter staring at him he quickly got up and bowed. Then he left the room.

"Did you get some kind of punishment?" Mikey asked jeeringly. "Yes, I was made to drink tea" Raph said sarcastically but instead of jumping down on Michelangelo's throat he just sat on the floor, his back against one of the pillars.

"Geez, Raph is being moody again, is it already that time of the month?" Mikey said as if whispering it to Leo. Raph threw his remaining sai towards Mikey. A few curls of Mikey's hair fell on the floor. Mikey's face had turned white. "Yep, definitely that time of the month" Leonardo said nonchalantly.

"My sons… I have something to talk about" Splinter said, coming out of his room. They all went Splinter's room and sat on the cushions. Other three seemed a little bit curious but Raphael seemed like he wasn't even going to listen what their master was going to tell them.

"As you already know, you four are genetically modified humans, born and raised in the laboratory until I came and took you with me. They made some kind of tests on you and probably would still be doing them if you hadn't run away with me. You still have the serial numbers tattooed on your right hand" Splinter said.

Raph looked at his hand where he could clearly see a text written on dark red letters: "TS-01". There was "HC-01" on Leo's hand, "BA-01" on Don's and "CS-02" on Mikey's.

"The man who was leading this whole project is called the Shredder. But he is known with yet another name… Oroku Saki" Splinter said. "Sound like some kind of food for me… "Mikey said. Leo and Don hushed to him, Raphael still seemed uninterested.

"The story begins from Japan. Oroku Saki and I were training under the same teacher, the leader of the foot clan. We both also fell in love with the same woman, the leader's daughter Tang Shen. I thought was lucky when she chose me. Oroku Saki was filled with rage.

However, Tang Shen's father had his own plans for his daughter. He told us that the one who would become clan's leader was also the one to have the right to marry his daughter. He gave us one year to practice on our own. After the year had passed we were supposed to have a match against each other to decide the next leader and Tang Shen's husband.

Oroku Saki and I agreed on this. But Tang Shun did not. In the end, we ended up running away together, Tang Shen and I. But on the day of the match, I returned the foot clan's residence. I fought long battle against Oroku Saki. Our power, speed, stamina, they were all equal. After we had fought non-stop during two days and nights the Master ordered us to stop. He told us that he was very impressed of us both and offered a compromise: the other one got his daughter, the other the clan.

Oroku Saki was asked first which one he would prefer. I was afraid that he was going to choose Tang Shen but he quickly blurted out that he wanted to be the leader of the clan. The Master asked me if I was fine with this. I was more than delighted. I told him that it was more than okay with it" Splinter told.

"Excuse me Sensei but… Why are you telling us about your ex-girlfriend?" Mikey asked. "Let me finish this, then you'll surely understand…" Splinter said smiling a little.

"Tang Shen and I continued our love-filled life without hearing even a word about the foot clan or Shredder for years. Tang Shen was pregnant, about to give birth soon. One day Oroku Saki came to see us. I sensed immediately that something was off with him. I thought that he had changed somehow and soon I realized the thing that was bothering me wasn't that he looked different. No, in fact he looked exactly the same that he did seven years ago. It was like he hadn't aged even a day after our last meeting.

When he talked with us he was polite and friendly. He told us that they had some kind of mission in North and decided to come to see us on the way there. He soon left saying he was in a hurry. We naively supposed that he really was on the mission some elsewhere.

Next day, when I came back home from work I found out that our house was burned down. I couldn't find Tang Shen anywhere, neither dead nor alive. But when I was digging up the remains of our house I found a shuriken with the foot clan's mark on it. I hurried back to the foot clan's headquarters, only to find its burned remains.

Then I was sure about something that I had suspected for a while back then: Oroku Saki was behind all of this. Thus I started the search for him and my wife. It took three years until for me to find out where they were: a small research centre in New York.

I broke into the research centre. I went through their research notes trying to find a clue of Tang Shen. But I was interrupted and had to run away. During my escape there was an accident in one of the labs. The explosion caused some weird liquid to burst over me. I tried to wipe it off as soon as possible. The explosion had also caused a wall to collapse. In the room behind the collapsed wall, I heard crying.

I went to that room and found four children none of them over two years old. One of them, the smallest one, was crying furiously" Splinter said and Raph said: "Mikey. Definitely Mikey". "Heey…." Mikey said offended.

"It really was Mikey…. One of them, the biggest one was trying to hold him. The other two were also gathered around them, trembling, about to cry. Without thinking, I grabbed all of them and escaped in to the sewers. There tried to wash the liquid properly off but noticed that it had changed me. In those parts where the liquid had touched my skin, it had turned black. And my left eye, it was… Well…" Splinter said and undid the bandage covering his left eye. He opened his eye. It was glowing red. There wasn't sclera, iris or pupil in his eye. It was just all red.

"After I had recovered from the shock, I decided to keep the left side of my face hidden so I wouldn't scare you. I also realized that I still had some research notes hidden on my sleeves. I didn't have time to read them back then because I had to quickly find us a safe hideout.

So I wandered around with you. After walking in the sewers two days, we accidentally found this place. I begun to make this place look more like a home. I was also busy to taking care of you. It seemed that you didn't have any names so I named you after famous renaissance artists. After the things had settled down a little, I found the research notes again.

I read them and found out many things about you. You weren't normal humans. Your genes were modified and they weren't only human genes. The liquid that had turned me like this… This liquid had always been part of you. The liquid is called "the blood of the fallen star". I'm not sure what it is but I think it might be real blood. Blood of some creature that I have never heard before.

There were notes about some test subjects familiar to you. Some of the test subjects had been marked "dead", "failure" even as "eliminated". There was also some information about their mothers. And among them, there was a file of Tang Shen.

She was marked as dead. It seemed like she had died about a year ago after giving a birth for a child. It wasn't our child and because that child on the file was marked as her first, I could only assume that our child was also dead.

After reading all the files, I burned them all. I have gained a lot of knowledge from those notes. And realized that it was too dangerous for you to live among other humans. The Shredder would find you sooner or later and you needed to be ready when that time comes. If I had let you to live freely on the surface, it wouldn't have taken even a week him to find you" Splinter said.

"We never asked to LIVE there, just go there once in a while… You go there all the time and nobody has caught you" Raph said. "Let's assume that you won't get captured if you spent only a little time over-ground. But what do you think would happen if you were let out there?" Splinter asked.

"Umm… Probably we would want to go there again. More often and spent more time there. Without Sensei around. And maybe after a while some of us would start saying stuff like "Why are we the only ones living like this?" "I want a normal life." "I'm going to live up there, go to high school and get some friends" and then probably run away and sooner or later the Shredder would find us and either kill or capture us" Don said.

"Is it really so wrong to want stuff like that?" Raph said. "I'm kinda starting to agree with Raphie" Mikey said. "I always wondered what it was like: to go school, hang around with friends and see all the other stuff I have seen only in television with my own eyes… And eat all those delicious looking foods…" Mikey said.

"Mikey, I thought you hated studying" Don said. "Yeah but going to school doesn't equal studying. It's about making friends, eating school lunch and…" Mikey said. "… In your case: getting your head dunked it the toilet" Raph scorned. Mickey glared him.

"ANYWAYS" Splinter started his sentence. They all quieted down. "I think you're starting to get old enough to go up. But because it's too dangerous us all go there at the same time, I'll go there with two of you at time. You're still not allowed to go there alone" Splinter said.

"So… We're going there tonight?" Raph asked. "No, not tonight" Splinter said. "You're dismissed" he said. The boys left the room.

"Wow, I can't wait to see what's it like out there…." Mikey said. "Haven't you already seen it in the television?" Don asked. "Yeah but didn't you say yourself that I'm not supposed to believe in everything that I see on television? " Mikey said.

"Well then… I'm going to sleep" Raphael said and yawned. "Sleep…? It's not even eight yet…" Leo said. "Splinter's story made me sleepy…" Raph said before slamming the door of his room closed. "Hey… Is it only me or is Raph acting fishy?" Leo asked.

When the night had fallen and it seemed like everybody had gone to sleep, Raph stealthy opened his room's door and looked around. Nobody was in the living room. Because leaving trough the main entrance would have made too much voice, he decided to take another road.

There was an underwater passage that led in their lair. The only disadvantage was, obviously, getting wet. Raphael didn't really mind of getting wet. He sneaked around, picked his sai that was lying on the floor, and then headed to the pool. He checked out if the way was clear. Nobody was on the sight.

He continued ahead and found his other sai. He continued sneaking. He thought that going up through the nearest manhole wouldn't be such a good idea so he continued a little bit further. After walking a while, there was a smaller fairway on his right. He decided to follow it instead of the bigger one, which continued straight towards.

It was dark so he couldn't see much ahead of him. A few meters before the manhole, he could see the stairs. It also seemed like there was a passage going across the one he was walking right now. "Ha, I did it…" Raph said triumphantly and hurried to the stairs. But before getting on them, he felt his feet being swept off.

Raphael did a forward roll and got back on his feet. He thought that he still could reach the stairs but suddenly a flashlight was lit. Raphael's eyes were already used in the darkness so the sudden bright light hurt his eyes.

"Okay, the playtime is over Raph" Leo said. He was still pointing at Raph with the flashlight. Raph threw his sai on the flashlight, causing it to break down. At that moment, he was pushed down by somebody and yet another flashlight was lit.

Raph lied against the ground hold there by Mikey. "Ewewew… He's wet…" Mikey said. "So you came through the waterway after all…" Don said pointing him with a flashlight. "Through the waterway, deciding not to choose the nearest manhole, walking straight until finding this smaller passage and then turning right. When reaching the stairs, you would become hasty and wouldn't be able to notice Leo until you got…." Don explained.

"Gee, want a cookie or something? Okay, you guys won, I lost, just let me get up… I feel slightly disgusted having Mikey lying over me" Raph interrupted. "Ah but in that case you would…." Don started explain another of his anticipations. "Okay I promise I don't do that thing either, whatever it is…. " Rafael said.

"Can we trust him? Or should we just tie him up like we originally planned?" Don asked. "Well… I guess he already knows that there's no way escaping from us…" Leo said. "Yes yes, I swear I won't go near to that manhole again" Raph said. "Mikey… Release him…" Leo said.

Raph got up, picked his sai and said: "You really should guard that manhole though… I might betray your trust and use it after all". The other three automatically started to guard it. Raph calmly walked away. When he was a half way of the tunnel, Don suddenly realized something: "Wait a second… Shouldn't we be following him?"

After that all four of them begun to ran. Leo got the end of the passage quick enough to see his brother to going up through a manhole. "Well… At least he did keep his word..." Mikey said. "Argh! Why that guy have to be so impatient!" Leo shouted frustrated.

"Should we go after him?" Don asked. "Like we had any other choices… Just… Let's not to let anybody see us…" Leo said. "Yeah and if Splinter catches us, we'll just blame it all on Raph" Mikey said. Leo glared him. "What? It is his fault after all" Mikey said but couldn't hide his excitement.

When Raph first came out of the manhole, he saw a messy back alley with trash lying around everywhere. "This isn't really what I was expecting…" he said and looked around a little. He noticed that it would be fairly easy to climb on one of those buildings.

Just a little bit before reaching the top, he heard the manhole being opened again. "They decided to follow me huh?" Raph thought. When he got on the top he looked around again. The city's lights were glimmering like billions of diamonds. There was a strong gasoline's smell in the air and a small, chilly wind was blowing.

"Heh, better continue before they catch me" Raph said and jumped on the nearest house's roof. Then he ascended on the ground and sneaked around the streets. In one alley, he saw some very suspicious looking guys. He decided to spy them.

The guys were loading a van. There were some men simply guarding the van while other's carried stuff in. Suddenly Raph felt a hand on his shoulder. "We're going home…." Leo said. "No, wait, look…" Raph said and pointed out the guys loading the van.

"That symbol… I have heard of them… They are the Purple Dragons, the toughest street gang around here…" Leo said. "Leo, what are…" Don said but Leo hushed on him. Don looked at men too. "Hey did you already find Raph!?" Mikey shouted merrily. "Mikey, hush" all the other three said but it was already too late.

"Who's there?" one of the men shouted. "Let's run!" Leo said. They ran away and the men were following them. Soon they realized that they had reached dead end.

All four stood their backs on the wall. They all took their fighting positions. When the men saw who they were chasing, they burst in to laughter. "Haha, some brats wearing ninja costumes…. How cute" a man said. "At least we're cute. Unlike you, I've never seen anything uglier than your face and it's something considering that I live with Mikey" Raph mocked.

The man's smile was worn off. He gave a sign with his hand other's to get ready for a battle. The brothers stood still, ready to attack.

"You're dead freaks! Nobody messes with Purple Dragons!" a man shouted. "You kids should had just stayed home playing your ninja-games. But now that you have seen us, we have no other choice than eliminate you…" another man said, tapping a long pipe against his hand.

"Who are you calling a kid?!" Raph shouted and attacked the man. After he had made his move, the others had no other choice than engage themselves in to the battle.

"Wow, my first time fighting against this many opponent" Raph said smacked one of the men on face. Another one was trying to hit him from behind but Raph dodged him with flip, causing the men crash on each other.

Mean while, Leonardo was surrounded by three men, one of them holding a knife, and the other two had some kind of pipes in their hands. After few seconds all three men were lying on the ground unconscious. Mikey was doing his best dodging the men attacking him and Donatello was knocking out ones attacking on Mikey.

After ten minutes, all the fifteen Purple Dragons were lying on the ground. "Heh, they weren't so tough after all" Raph laughed and kicked one of them. Suddenly he got a hit on his head.

"Ouch… What was that for…" Raph said rubbing his head. "For being a selfish, immature jerk" Leo said. "Thanks?" Raph said. "Argh, let's just go home already" Leo said. They searched the nearest manhole and made sure that nobody was able to see them. Then they went through it and returned home.

"Should we use the waterway or front door?" Don asked. "I don't care, let's just go inside already" Raph said shaking. "I don't really want to get wet but it's possible that Sensei wakes up when we open the door" Don said.

"Oh you don't have to worry about that, he won't" a voice behind them said. "You can't know that for sure, in fact the possib…" Don objected but after recognizing the voice his face turned pale. He slowly turned around as did all his brothers. Master Splinter had been sitting behind of them the whole time.

"Uh… Good evening… I mean night… I mean….Small hours Sensei!" Mikey said trying to sound cheerful. "Explain yourselves" Splinter said. "Umm… You see… Raph…." Mikey started. "Raph?" Splinter asked glaring at Raph. "A….I…" Raph stammered trying to make up something but ended up sneezing and shivering. He blushed as embarrassed and covered his face with his hand to hide it.

"Raphie-boy here has a weird habit to walk in his sleep and go on midnight swimming while he's on it " Mikey said. "Mikey, that's not helping" Raph said and punched him. "Raph's right… I think Master already knows what happened…" Leo said and begun to explain what had happened.

After hearing their story the sensei remained silent. "Uh, can we go to sleep now?" Mikey asked hopefully. Splinter smiled. "No" he answered continuing: "Your punishment is going to be some intensive training from here until next evening".

After the training was over they all were so tired that they just fell asleep on the training room's floor. Master Splinter smiled a little while covering them with blankets. "I guess they won't try to sneak up any time soon…" Master Splinter thought.


	2. Chapter 2: A sudden encounter

Chapter 2: A sudden encounter

It was a normal Saturday. Donatello was working on one of his projects, Leonardo had a match against Raphael and Michelangelo was channel surfing. "Aw man, isn't there anything interesting going on… " he complained.

Suddenly he stopped changing the channels. "Huh, what's this? A movie?" he asked. In the television, they were showing some kind of robots. "These robots are the newest invention of Baxter Stockman" the anchorman told. "Oh, it just the news, boring" Mikey said. "Baxter Stockman? Wait, I want to see this" Don said and sat next to Mikey.

"So, could you tell us what exactly are these things?" the anchorman asked. "These "things" are highest technology and a solution for the city's rat problem. Let me introduce you the Mousers" Baxter Stockman said and gave a sign for his assistant to come closer.

A young woman with red hair and white laboratory jacket came closer, carrying a box filled with rats. In the floor in front of Baxter Stockman, there was a maze. "April, release the rats" Stockman said. The assistant poured the rats in the maze.

After that the Mousers were released in the maze. In a short moment, all the rats were gone. "The rats were eaten alive… Poor guys…" Mikey said. "But you have to admit that the robots were brilliant… I want also make something like that someday…" Don dreamed."Just make something less cruel, please" Mikey said.

"There's some kind of glitch on the few Mousers…" April said. "It's okay, you can already go home now" Baxter Stockman said. "No, it won't take long to fix them… I'll leave after I have finished this…" April said. "Okay but remember that I won't pay for the overtime" he said and left.

April was going through the Mousers data while drinking coffee. Accidentally, she dropped the mug on the keyboard. "Oh shit… Baxter won't be too happy about this…" she thought and begun to clean the keyboard.

"I wonder if it's still working… What's this?" she said puzzled. She had accidentally opened some kind of hidden folder. "These aren't about the Mousers… I wonder if it's somehow related in his previous works… " April thought. "Wait… I shouldn't be reading these… The Mousers… " she remembered.

She closed the files and opened the Mousers' data files again. A new folder had appeared there. "This one wasn't here before… Huh? What is this? There was supposed to be only 25 of them but according to this data, there are at least two hundred of them… A computer glitch? " April said out loud.

Suddenly, April felt a sharp pain in his head and her sight blacked out. She fell on the floor unconscious.

Master Splinter and the four teenagers were standing at an intersection of two sewer passages. They were pretty far away their home. The Master hadn't told them yet what they were doing there.

"For today's practice…We're playing hide-and-seek" Splinter said. "Hide-and-Seek? Seriously? Isn't that something we did when we were like… Five?" Raphael asked. "Here, put these on you backs" Splinter said and handed each one of them a paper with Japanese writing.

"What's with the hieroglyphs?" Mikey asked. "Just put them on" Splinter said. After they all had the papers safety-bin attached on their backs. Splinter told them to turn around to check them. "I don't know what's going on but this feels so stupid…" Raph muttered.

"Good. Now I'll explain the rules. As you can see, there are four paths here: one leading north, one east, one west and the south path that leads home. Each of you takes one path. The paths are connected to each other, not only by this intersection.

Your objective is very simple: to catch the papers on the other's backs without being found out. After you have stolen somebody's paper, return here to give it to me. The ones whose paper's got stolen aren't allowed to take other's papers anymore and should return here to wait with me.

However if you steal somebody else's paper and he is able to steal yours before you had returned it here the both of you will be out. It's also possible to try to steal your own paper back. And don't try to fake the papers or attach somebody else's paper on you. I'll know if you're trying to cheat" Splinter explained.

"So it's not necessary to hide as long as we just get the papers without losing ours?" Raph asked. "Yes and no… " Splinter said. "How about staying in one hideout the whole time?" Mikey asked. "You might do that… But if you all just stay hiding, the game will never end" Splinter said.

"So, did you all understand the rules?" Splinter asked. After getting affirmative answers, Splinter ordered all of them to choose their paths. Before he let the boys go he added: "And this should go without saying but going on surface is forbidden". Then, at his mark, they all vanished in the tunnels.

"Heh, this seems like a perfect hideout…" Mikey though and hid behind a trash pile his back against the wall. "Now nobody can snatch my paper away from me without me noticing it. And if somebody passes here, I'm ready to ambush" Mikey thought.

At the same time, Donatello was sneaking around in the dark corridors. "I think I should try to go after Mikey first. He's probably just staying in one place, waiting for someone to pass by. He chose the south path and I'm on the west path so there shouldn't be anyone between us. Raphael chose the east path and Leo the north path… I think Leo tries to find Raphael first. And Raphael also might be going after Mikey" Don thought.

"But it's possible that Raphael knows that Leo might be after him and plans to take care of him before reaching Mikey. Wait… Should I go after Leo after all? No, he knows that I might be trying to attack on him… It's possible that Leo is after me instead of Raph. But it's sure that Raphael tries to take Mikey out" Don calculated.

Don sneaked forward cautiously. Soon, he was able to see a dark silhouette of a short boy hiding behind the trash pile. Donatello picked an empty coke can on the ground and threw it across the room. When it hit the wall, Michelangelo turned towards the voice, revealing his back to Donatello.

Donatello was going to attack Mikey but he noticed that somebody else had also reached this part of the tunnels. Raphael had heard the sound caused by the empty coke can and moved forwards it. He wasn't even trying to stay invisible. Raphael noticed the trash piles and attacked on Mikey. Mikey dodged him and tried to steal Raph's paper. But Raph was able to knock Mikey down. He stole Mikey's paper and quickly run away. Mikey went after him.

Because Don was sure that Leonardo was waiting on that path where Raphael had arrived, he decided to return back his on steps. His plan was to go around a longer route. When he was somewhere around the Northern area, he saw something lying on the ground. Something that looked like a body…

Donatello got closer to see better. He was surprised when he realized that in front of him, was the very same lab assistant that he had seen on the television earlier that. "Is she dead…?" he thought and checked the woman's pulse. For his relief, the woman was just unconscious.

"Is she dead?" Leo's voice asked behind him. "No, it seems like she is just unconscious… It seems like somebody hit her on the head…. " Don said. "What should we do with her? We can't just leave her here…" Leo asked. "Yeah, let's take her to Splinter, he knows what to do" Don said.

Suddenly Don and Leo felt something on their back. Their papers were being taken away. "And I'll be taking these to him" Raph said. "Hey! Try to read the situation here!" Don shouted. Raph ran away. "Don't mind about him, I think he'll come back here with sensei" Leo said.

Leo and Don begun to carry the woman and soon they came across Splinter, Mikey and Raph. "It seems like she was attacked from behind and ditched in the sewers" Splinter said after examining the woman. "I think we should bring her back home with us" Splinter added.

When they had reached their home, they lowered the woman on the couch, put a wet, cold towel on her forehead and covered her with a blanket. Then they could do nothing more than wait.

Don was watching over the woman. She looked pretty on the television but in the real life, she was even prettier. This was the first time for Don to see a real woman.

"Aw, why isn't she waking up? Should we pour some cold water on her? Even Raph wakes up when we pour water on him… " Mickey said leaning on the sofa. "I have a better idea… Let's strip her" Raph said smiling mischievously. Don blushed. "Raph you….! You…" he shouted.

"Haha, I was just joking… But I bet you loved to see her naked, your face tells everything" Raph said grinning. "Raph, that's not something that an honorable warrior would do" Leo said. "Geez, I already told you that I was just joking… " Raph said.

The woman moved a little. All the four teenagers stared at her. The woman mumbled something and then slowly opened her eyes. When she saw four masked boys staring at her she screamed surprised. "Hey, don't worry, we won't hurt you" Donatello said.

"You…Are you some kind of kidnappers? Did you… Kidnap me?" the woman asked panicky. "No, we didn't… We just found you lying on the ground unconscious…." Leonardo said. "Then why are you wearing masks?" the woman asked. "Well… Ermm… " Leonardo answered.

"It's because I've told them to" Splinter said carrying a cup of tea. He offered the tea for April, who took the cup but didn't drink. "Who are you guys?" April asked. "I'm called Splinter. These are my sons: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo" Splinter introduced them.

"Um… I'm April O'Neil" April said. "Would you like to tell us what happened to you?" Splinter asked. "Ah… I was working at Baxter Stockman's laboratory and came across some weird files… That's the only thing I can remember… Then I woke up here…" April said.

"It seems like you saw something that you shouldn't have and they tried to get rid of you…" Splinter said. "Uh… I don't understand… The files didn't seem that important at all… " April muttered. "Ah! The extra Mousers! That must be it!" she suddenly shouted.

"Mousers? The ones we saw in TV?" Don asked. "Yeah… It seems like there's almost ten times more of them that there should be. The city gave us funds for only 25 of them" April said and added: "And for some reason they were kept hidden"

"I bet that Stockman guy is plotting something" Raphael said, holding his sais tightly. "You're not going to drink your tea?" Splinter asked. "Uh I…" April said. "I see… My sons… Take the masks off" Splinter said. They all obeyed their sensei.

"You… You're all just kids…." April said surprised. "Hey! Watch your mouth!" Raphael shouted. "Raphael, you should also do so…." Splinter said and Raph turned his head away, looking like he was sulking. "You have to promise me to stay calm" Splinter said. April nodded. Splinter removed the bandage covering the left side of his face.

April was about to scream again but covered her mouth with his hand. "You… Your face… What… What happened?" April asked. Splinter sighed. "Well, it's a long story…" Splinter started. "It would become shorter if you skipped the part with your girlfriend" Mikey said. Splinter raised his eyebrow. "What? It would!" Mikey insisted.

After Splinter had told their story, April remained silent for a while."The blood of the fallen star… Ah! Those files! I accidentally found some files talking about the blood of the fallen star. Though I didn't really read them, so I'm not sure what they were about" April said.

"Let's go to retrieve those files!" Raph said. "Sounds good to me" Mikey said. "I ABSOLUTELY FORBIT THAT!" Sensei shouted. "I agree with Sensei… It's way too dangerous" Leo said."Leo agreeing with Sensei? Quick, call the media" Raph said sarcastically. Leo glared him.

"We have a way bigger problem here… " Splinter said. "Miss O'Neil…. This is the first time anybody found out about us… Even though you're not obliged to keep our existence as a secret we beg you to not to tell about us anyone" Master Splinter said bowing down.

"You saved me. Of course I'll keep the secret… Also… I don't know if the one who knocked me out is still after me…" April said. "You're right… Maybe it would be the safest that you stayed with us for a while" Splinter said. "I…could?" April asked.

"Yeah, Donnie here would be extremely happy with that" Raph said putting his arm on Don's shoulder. Don shoved Raph off while blushing, "We all would be very happy to have you here with us" Leo said. "Yeah, it's nice to get some company other than these guys for a change… No offense dudes…" Mickey said.

A day had passed since they had rescued April. April used her time mainly watching television. It seemed like there had been many robberies lately. Many banks and jewellers' had become their victims. And nobody has been able even to see the burglars. The victims had only left behind some weird tunnels, too small for a person to fit in.

Mikey had his own theory about them. "I bet the thieves dug those holes so they could throw their loot in the holes. The holes are connected in the sewers and all the thieves had to do was just escape quickly and then come to get the treasures" Mikey said and added: "Let's go and see if we can find those first!"

"Um, Mikey… I don't think that's the case" Leo said. "Why not?" Mikey asked. "That plan is simply stupid" Raph said. "Is not" Mikey insisted. "I think the thieves used some kind of robots to do their work" Donatello said.

"You're right Donatello… And I think I know what kind of robots did this…" April said. All the others seemed like they had just realized something. "You don't think it was…" Donatello started but was interrupted by Mikey asking: "You don't think it was Megatron?"

After a short silence Raph pulled Mikey's ear saying: "Maybe it's better that you stay out of this conversation". "Ouch! Quit it Raph!" Mikey shouted. Raph released Mikey's ear. Mikey rubbed his aching ear.

"The extra Mousers… I bet they're used in the robberies…." April said. "Well…There's only one way to find it out…" Don said. "Really, what's that?" Mikey asked. "We should go to Baxter Stockman's lab and find out what's going on out there" Leo said.

"Hmm…? I must be hearing things… Splinter's pet wants us to go against Splinter's orders?" Raphael asked. "I'm not his pet. But hasn't he always told us to do what's right?" Leonardo said. "Yeah… We'll maybe be able to catch the person who attacked on April and then she can return home safely…" Donatello said.

"Aw c'mon, it's not so bad to stay with us" Mikey said. "Sewers aren't really places for humans to live in" Leo said. "Hey! We are humans and we are living here" Mikey shouted. "We are kind of… An exception…" Leo answered.

"So, what are we waiting for? Splinter might come back if we don't hurry…." Raphael said impatiently. "We need a plan" Leonardo said. "Here's a plan: We go there, kick some ass, do the computer stuff and get back safely" Raph said. "I have a better plan" Leonardo said.

"April, is it possible to go straight to the laboratory from the sewers?" Leonardo asked. "Actually… Yes… The laboratory building used to be one of the sewer maintenance buildings, so there's a path leading straight to the laboratory's basement which leads to the room where Baxter's main computer is. Though the door is locked and there's an alarm…" April said.

"The alarm and lock aren't problems… But we need to make sure that the room will be empty when we reach it…" Donatello said. "Yeah, that's why we need two people to go in the building and make sure that everyone leaves the building" Leo said.

"I see… Well, because I'm working there, I should go" April said. "But it's dangerous for you to go back there" Donatello said. "I'm the only one of us who can freely enter to that place. Besides, I would feel bad as an adult letting bunch of kids going there by themselves" April said.

"She's right Don…. I don't like this either but It's the best plan I got. Now then, we need somebody to go with April and protect her…" Leo said. "I'll go" Raph said. Leo stared Raph silently. "Sending you out there would be way too risky" Leonardo finally said. "What? You think I can't do it?" Raph asked a little bit offended. "No it's just… We need somebody innocent looking like… " Leo said.

"Somebody like me?" Mikey asked smiling innocently. "You? You aren't even …" Raph started but his phrase was cut by Leo's words: "Yeah, I think you'll be perfect for this job Mikey". "What?" Raph shouted. "Well, we need Donatello to open the door and I can't go there with my sword. And… Um… We don't really want to cause too much ruckus…" Leo said. "And you're sending Mikey there?" Raphael asked wondering.

"Anyways, Mikey and April go through the front door and make a fire alarm to ring. Then me, Don and Raph get in the laboratory, lock the doors and find the data we need. After that we'll give them to April and she gives it to the police" Leo said.

"But that isn't going to reveal the ones behind attacking on April…" Mikey said. "The only ones who can freely enter that room are me and Baxter Stockman. And I'm pretty certain that it was him" April said. "Besides, he was acting pretty suspiciously before…" she added.

"Hey, what's with this get up?" Mikey asked. He was wearing a hoodie, loose jeans, black gloves, surgical mask and sunglasses. "Well… It's just in case. If people stare you, start coughing. If they ask you to take off your glasses, April tells them that your eyes are badly inflamed and you're too embarrassed to take them off" Don explained.

"What? Why?" Mikey asked. "Because April has been watching over her sick cousin Arthur during these two days. She lost her cell phone and there's something wrong with her internet connection so she wasn't able to inform her boss about the situation and goes to office to clear things out. The sick cousin came along because they were on their way back from seeing the doctor…" Leo said.

"So we're going to get this Arthur first before heading Stockman's place?" Mikey asked. Leonardo facepalmed. "I think he's already dead Mikey. After all, April hasn't been home for two days" Raph teased. "Mikey, you're the Cousin Arthur!" Leo shouted frustrated.

"I'm… Dead?" Mikey asked. Raph laughed. "Hey guys, stop wasting the time" Donatello said. "Okay, Mikey, you're playing cousin Arthur, you're pretending to be sick, cause a fire alarm without anybody noticing and secretly join us with April while people are panicking and trying to get out of the building, understood?" Leo said. "Yeah!" Mikey said. "Okay, let's go then!" Leo shouted.

April showed Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael where the door leading to the Stockman's laboratory was. Then she and Mikey headed towards a manhole. Donatello started to dismantle the alarm and picked the lock. After the door was opened, they hid in the basement and waited for the signal.

Meanwhile, Mikey and April were standing at the front door of the Stocktronics. Mikey looked at April who nodded and then they went in. The receptionist recognized April but looked at Mikey suspiciously. "He's my cousin Arthur" April introduced.

Mikey started fake coughing. "As you can see, he's sick and his parents are working abroad so I'm taking care of him… I'll need to try to get some days off for him…" April said. "He can wait on the lobby" the receptionist said frowning at Mikey. "He's shy so being alone in unknown place causes him stress and sick people should avoid stress….You know, he might get some kind of seizure… "April said. "Fine, he can go with you then" the receptionist sighed.

April and Mikey followed the corridor that lead in the room where the computer was. When they were sure that no one was seeing them, April hit the fire alarm button and they hid.

When Leo heard the fire alarm he ordered Raphael and Donatello to proceed. They went to the room where the main computer was. Donatello immediately started hacking in the computer. Leo was guarding the door leading in to the sewers and Raph was watching over the elevator.

"I found the files… I'm going to copy them on my hard drive…" Donatello reported. "Do that… But quickly, we don't have much time" Leo said. "Shouldn't April and Mikey be here already?" Raph asked. As he said it, the elevator begun to move. "Finally" Raph said frustrated .

But the one coming out of the elevator wasn't either Mikey or April. It was Baxter Stockman. "Hmph, I was expecting something like this when I heard the fire alarm" Stockman said. "You punks came here to steal my experiments, didn't you?" Stockman said.

"You… You're the one that attacked on April!" Raph shouted and was going to hit Stockman with his sais but Leo shouted: "Wait!" Raph froze. "Wait what, to him to get away?" Raph shouted. "Haha, you fools… You're breaking in my laboratory and think you can threaten me!" Baxter shouted.

"You… Why did you attack on April?" Leo asked. "Why? She was snooping around and found something that she shouldn't have" Stockman said. "About the robberies going on around here?" Leo asked. "Well, that was one of those things…" Stockman said.

"And I see you're trying to retrieve those files… But that information won't be very useful for you after you're dead…" Stockman said. "Oh yeah, let's see who'll drop dead first!" Raph said and was going to slash Stockman but Stockman shouted: "DO THAT AND I'M NOT REPONSIBLE OF WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR FRIENDS!"

"You… Did you do something to April and Mikey?" Raph asked. Stockman smiled. Now the brothers noticed that there were two bags behind Stockman. And they were moving. "Back off or I'll kill them" Stockman said. Raph had no other choice than back off. Stockman threw the bags out of the elevator and stepped in.

"You guys see this device? It's the main controller of the Mousers. Soon, this room will be swarming them and I've programmed them to eat every living creature in this room, not living even bones behind" Stockman said laughing manically.

"That's it, I'll kill you!" Raph shouted and tried to attack on Stockman but ended up hitting the elevator's metal doors. Stockman was already gone. Leo opened the bags and found April and Mikey in them tied up. Raph tried to get the elevator come down but it seemed like it was stuck.

"I'll go after him!" Raph shouted and headed towards the door that led in the sewers. "Raph wait!" Leo shouted. Raph opened the door and saw an army of Mousers. "What the hell?" he asked. "There's way more of them that there used to be" April said surprised. "It seems like there's almost thousand of them" Mikey said.

"According these data files, 1225 actually" Donatello said. The Mousers were heading towards them. Raph slammed the door closed and asked: "Hey Einstein is there any way to stop them? Besides the obvious ass-kicking of course…" The Mousers started eating the door.

"Well…" Donatello said. "Let me help" April said and started helping Don. The Mousers already came through the door and Raph was trying to break them. Leonardo and Mike came to his help. Soon, the Mousers began to enter the room through other walls also and there started to be too much for them to handle.

They all moved closer each other to protect April and Don. "There's way too much of them" Mikey complained and crushed two Mousers with his nunchakus. "You don't say?" Raph said throwing a Mouser towards couple other Mousers, causing them all to crash together against the wall and break down.

"Don, April, can't you hurry a little?!" Raph shouted when one of the Mousers scratched his face. "I'm trying… It seems like the only way to change their function is to use the main controller that Stockman is having!" Don shouted. "How about creating a virus or something like that?" Leo asked.

"It would take way too long!" Don shouted. "Well… There is a quick way to stop them but…" April said. "Really. what's that?" Raph shouted. "Um even though Stockman has the main controller, all the signals to the Mousers go through this computer. If the computer is destroyed then…" April started her explanation.

"Why didn't you just say so?!" Raph screamed and bashed the computer in to pieces. "… then they freeze and in one minute they'll explode" April finished. "Let's run!" Leo shouted. They all quickly escaped to the sewers and when they were almost out Don shouted: "Wait! I forgot my hard drive there!" "Well don't you think it's a little bit too late go back there?" Raph asked. "Raph is right, we just have to leave it behind" Leo said.

They were able to get out just in time, though the explosion was strong enough to knock them down. They fell on the water. After it was safe, they got up and headed back to their lair.

"We're sorry that we couldn't get any evidence against Baxter Stockman" Don said. He was sitting on the couch next to April. "No, it's okay" April said. "Yeah, it seems so, look!" Mikey said and pointed at the television.  
"There was an explosion at the Stocktronicks and we made a very interesting finding: it seems like all the this week's robberies were caused by Baxter Stockman's Mousers. We found the stolen goods, at least what was left of them. It seemed like Baxter Stockman tried to get rid of the evidence but we were…." the man in the news explained.

"See? Everything turned to be okay!" Mikey said merrily. "Mikey, be quiet" Raph said. "But unluckily we weren't able to catch the main culprit. Baxter Stockman has gone missing" the man said.

"Anyways, April should be able to return her home now" Leo said. "Wait, what if Stockman is waiting there to get his revenge on her?" Mikey asked. "Then it would be better if you went with Miss O'Neil, just in case" a voice behind them

"Master Splinter!" the teenagers shouted. "But wear sunglasses and bandanas. Wearing a hooded jacket is also necessary. And gloves, don't forget the gloves" Master Splinter said. "Geez, we're not kids anymore… Well, except Mikey…" Raph said. "I like being a kid" Mikey said.

"Is it really okay us to go?" Leo asked. "Yes. After some meditation, I decided that I can't keep you down here forever. From now on, you can visit the surface whenever you like as long as you don't get in any trouble and stay properly hidden from the enemy" Splinter said. "Thank you Sensei" Leo said bowing down. "Awesome!" Mikey shouted excited

"Should we go somewhere together? " April asked continuing: "I'll treat you guys, you like to get something to eat?". "Pizza!" all four guys shouted smiling. "How about you Mr. Splinter?" April asked. "I'll pass… My favorite soap opera is about to start" Splinter said.

The boys put their disguises on, said goodbye to Splinter and left with April. It turned out that Stockman wasn't hiding in April's apartment and they could go eat the pizza in a good mood.


	3. Chapter 3: A hot head

Chapter 3: Hot head

A week had passed since April had returned in her own home. The teenagers had found an abandoned garage on the city's outskirts. In the garage, there were some jalopies and other metal junk. Donatello had installed a security system on the garage and was building something. The others usually helped Don by doing stuff like sanding and lifting things.

"Hey Don, are you going to the garage today?" Leo asked while eating his breakfast. "Yeah, after the practice" Don said. "Is there anything I can help you with?" Leo asked. "Um, well… I think there might be some work for you too" Don answered.

"Hey how about me? Can I come to help you too?" Mikey asked. "Mikey, last time you came there you spend the whole time reading comics" Don said. "Well yeah, because somebody told me that I wasn't allowed to touch on anything" Mikey said and took some more cereals.

"How about you Raph, are you coming?" Don asked casually. There was no answer. Raph was sleeping on the table, with the spoon on his hand. "This guy really isn't a morning person…" Leo said and added: "And I thought that this day was going down in history as the day I actually got him up at the first try…"

"Hee, it's time for a punishment game" Mikey said his eyes glowing ominously. "Whatever you are thinking to do, don't. Raph will get mad on you" Leo said. "Heh, It wil be worth of it" Mikey said and drew some stuff on Raph's face and started piling up stuff on Raph. He even put a half empty coke can on Raphael. Then he went to get a CD-player, turned the volume on maximum and turned it on.

Raph startled awake and the coke fell on him. "Oh, you're awake at last" Mikey said purportedly innocently. Raph threw the empty coke can towards Mikey but missed. "Haha, tough luck, Raphie" Mikey scoffed and ran away.

When Raph went to the bathroom to wash away the coke on him, he noticed scribbles on his face. "Argh, that Mikey…" he swore. Later that day, they were practicing one against one hand-combat. Raph was paired with Mikey meanwhile Don was fighting against Leo. Instead of attacking, Mikey just kept dodging Raph.

"Quit running away!" Raph shouted. "You're just too slow to hit me" Mikey said smiling. "You little…." Raph swore and tried to attack. Mikey dodged him again and accidentally knocked over a shelf. He was able to get out of the shelf's way, but the shelf fell on Raph.

"Uh-oh… Sorry, I didn't mean to…" Mikey said and got closer Raph. "That's it, I had enough of you" Raph said getting up holding a piece of the broken self and attacked on Mikey. He pushed Mikey down and was about to hit Mikey on face, but was stopped by Leo.

"Raph! Stop! Just what the heck you think you're doing" Leo shouted. Raph froze, looked at Mikey and realized what he was about to do. Raph dropped the self piece he was holding. "I… I…" Raph stammered and got up.

"Mikey, are you okay?" Don asked. "Yeah" Mikey answered, still shocked. "What the heck were you Raph?" Don asked angrily. Raphael opened his mouth but couldn't think anything to say. "Ah, my son, so angry… Rage is a monster that will destroy you from within. Raphael, a true warrior finds balance in all things" Master Splinter said.

"Master Splinter I… I need some fresh air" Raphael said and run away. "Should I go after him?" Leo asked. "No, your brother needs some time to be alone" Splinter said. "I bet he went somewhere to cry" Mikey joked. Leo looked at Mikey and sighed. "I guess I'm kinda starting understand why Raph wanted to hurt you…" Leo said.

Raph was running on the rooftops. After he got tired of running, he stopped and hit the wall. "What's wrong with me…" he wondered. "Even though Mikey is annoying I shouldn't get so mad over things like that…I… Need to control myself better" Raph thought.

Raph looked down the street and saw something was going on out there. Three men were trying to rob a lady. "Oh, no you won't…" Raph said and was going to attack on them but somebody else got there first. "Purple Dragons, come out and play" a man wearing a hockey mask shouted. He was holding a hockey stick.

"It's that hockey masked freak again…" one of the Purple Dragons said. All the men moved towards the masked man. Raph decided to stay hidden and see where this fight was going. Hockey-mask-man knocked the three of them down in mere seconds and headed towards one of them.

"You scum don't even deserve to be alive" the man said. He raised his hockey stick and was going to hit the guy on face. "This won't end well" Raph thought and jumped behind the masked man. "Wow, hey hold your horses man, can't you see those guys are already down? They may be scum but there's no need to kill them" Raph said trying to hold the man back.

The Purple Dragons started running a way. "Stay out of this!" the man shouted and hit Raph on the face. He went after the Dragons. Raph fell on the ground next to the woman's purse that the Purple Dragons had dropped.

When Raph got up, both the Purple Dragons and the hockey mask man had already ran away. "Here's your purse" Raph said handing the purse for the women. The shocked women took the purse and Raph ran after the men.

It was fairly easy to find them because they were pretty noisy. "I wonder how nobody has called the cops yet" Raph thought. "We give up! We give up!" one of the Purple Dragons shouted. The masked man continued smashing them with the hockey stick.

When he was going to deliver the fatal strike, Raph jumped on him and knocked the man down. "Calm down already, didn't they say that they give up?" Raph shouted. "I told you to stay out of this kid!" masked man shouted back.

"Sorry, I can't let you kill anybody on my watch" Raph said. "Then I just have knock you down first" man said and hit his head against Raph's chin. Raph had to back down a little and the man was able to get on his feet.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you…" Raph said. "Oh yeah? Do you know what would help? Crushing those Dragons! " the man shouted. "Geez… And they call me a hot head" Raph said. The man attacked him with his hockey stick. Raph dodged his attacks.

"Quit dodging you cheeky brat!" the man shouted. "What, and get hit? No thanks" Raph said. The man began to attack more hastily. "Why are you siding with the Purple Dragons?!" the man shouted. "I'm not siding with them, I'm just trying to prevent you making something you'll regret later" Raph answered continuing: "You seem like a good guy and you surely have a good purpose but the way you're doing all this is just wrong!"

"To me, it looks like you're just protecting them!" the man shouted and attacked. Raph kicked his hockey stick away."Hockey season is over" Raph said. "Oh yeah? But the baseball is still in season!" the man said and took two baseball bats.

Raph used his sais to block the man's attacks. "You should try to control your anger! I know it's hard but…" Raph said. "SHUT UP!" the man shouted. "The Purple Dragons might be scum but do you really have to go down on their level?" Raph asked.

"Shut up already! You don't know anything what they have done!" the man shouted. "Then why don't you try to tell it to me instead of continuing this pointless fight?" Raph asked. "Hmm… Maybe you're right…I should tell you my story…" the man said. Raphael automatically lowered his guard. "NOT" the man shouted and hit Raph with the bat on the stomach.

"Sorry kid, no hard feelings" the masked man said and was about to leave but Raph knocked him down again. It seemed like Raph was going to hit the man and the man closed his eyes. But soon the man felt his mask being removed and opened his eyes.

"You aren't going to finish me?" the man asked. "What? I wasn't even to trying to hurt you in the first place…" Raph said. "I just want you to listen: I'm not sure what those Purple Dragons did to you but if you continue doing this, you'll get yourself in big trouble" Raph said.

"You want to know what they did? Okay, I'll tell you they…." the masked man shouted but wasn't able to finish his phrase. The Purple Dragons that had escaped were back with their friends. There were twenty men overall. And some of them were carrying guns.

"We'll continue this later, let's get away from here" Raph said and released the guy. Raph took a trash can's lid and threw it at the men. "Run!" he shouted and begun to run to the opposite direction than where the men were standing. The man whose hockey mask was now already taken off followed Raph.

"You should have just let me to finish them!" the man complained. "Well complaining about it now won't help much…. Continue running, I'm trying to buy some time" Raph said. "What? No way, you're going to get shot!" the man said. "Shot? Nah, they won't hit. I'm too good" Raph said and got on the roof.

Raph waited when the men were straight below him and then jumped middle of them. The guys couldn't shoot because they were too afraid of hitting their friends. Raph kept knocking the men down and picked a gun that one of the men had dropped.

"You should really start running if you don't want to get shot" Raph said. The men laughed. "There's more of us and we all have guns" one of the men said. Raphael lifted one of the men lying on the ground and put a gun against his head. "If you'll try to shoot me, I'll shoot him" Raph said coldly.

"Do you really think that we are believing you kid? You're obviously just bluffing, there's no way that a brat like you could even use a gun" one of the men said. "Try me" Raph said. The men were hesitating because they weren't sure if he was really going to do it and stayed still.

Soon, they could hear a motorcycle coming towards them. Raph looked behind him and saw the motorcycle. It seemed like the man riding it wasn't one of the Purple Dragons. The motorbike made a half circle in front of Raph. "Hop on!" the driver said. Raph quickly got on and they fled.

When they were far enough, Raph threw the gun away. "I didn't except you to return for me" Raph said. "I would have felt bad if you'd got yourself killed because of me" the man said. "Oh, I thought you hated me" Raph said. "Nah, you might be an annoying brat but I still kinda like you, kid"

"It's not "kid", it's Raphael" Raph said. "I'm Casey Jones" the man introduced himself. "So Casey… Where are we exactly heading right now?" Raph asked. "Well… We're taking a detour to my apartment….You wanted to hear my story, right?" Casey said.

They reached the right building and Casey parked his motorcycle inside the garage. Then they went in and up the stairs. When they had reached the right apartment, Casey opened the lock with his key. "Get in" he said.

"Wow… This place is cleaner than I expected… Are you sure you picked the right apartment?" Raph asked. "Hey, even I clean sometimes" Casey said. "Or you just don't spend much time home…" Raph said. Casey went to the fridge and took a beer can. He opened it and drank some.

Casey took few more cans and carried them on the couch. He sat down and Raph followed him. "You want some?" Casey asked holding a full beer can in front of Raph. "Thanks" Raph said and took it even though he didn't even know what was inside the can.

"So… It all begun eleven years ago, back when I was only twelve. My father had a shop here and we lived above it. Everything was going well until the Purple Dragons came. They required some protection money but my dad refused to pay" Casey said.

Raph was thirsty so he had already finished the beer. He waved it back and forwards to make sure that it was empty. "Want another one?" Casey asked. "Yeah" Raph said. Casey handed over another beer. "Well… One day I was coming back from the school and saw the house being caught in fire. Some Purple Dragon's people were surrounding the house and laughing" Casey said. Even remembering it made him angry.

"We lost many things because of the Purple Dragons: our house, our stuff and our shop. We were left only with debts. My dad got depressed and became an alcoholic. My mom had to work hard to get the food on the table. After working too hard she got sick and had to go to the hospital. My dad quit drinking and tried to earn money to pay Mom's hospital bills… I was sent to live with my grandmother" Casey said.

"When I was fifteen, my mother died. I returned here to live with my father. He was even more depressed than he used to be but still tried to work hard to take care of me. A year passed and he started to get over Mom's death. The life was going well, until the summer two years ago. Some Purple Dragons mugged Dad. After that he got depressed again. He was brought in the hospital and still hadn't got out there" Casey ended his story.

"I can understand why you hate the Purple Dragon" Raph said. He had already finished his third beer. "So… How about you? Why are you running around wearing some ninja costume?" Casey asked. "I am a ninja" Raph said and took the fourth beer. Casey laughed saying: "Yeah, right, you're a ninja".

"No, I'm serious. My brothers and I have been taught ninjutsu since we were little…" Raph explained. "Well knowing some kung-fu doesn't make you a ninja" Casey said. "Ninjustu and kung-fu are two totally different things…. Why I'm even trying to explain this?"Raph sighed.

"So what are those brothers of yours like?" Casey asked. "Leo is bossy and cocky, Mikey childish and annoying and Don is know-it-all nerd" Raph said. "Wow, that was pretty harsh" Casey said. "Still they are the best…" Raph said.

Raph's beer can was empty. "Hey, where's the bathroom, I need to pee" Raph said. "It that door over there" Casey said pointing the bathroom's door. "Got it" Raph said and got up.

Suddenly, he swayed forwards. "Whoah… It's hard to stand… Did you poison this?" Raph said. "Dude, you're just drunk…" Casey said. "Oh" Raph said wobbled towards the bathroom. "Wait, is this your first time? Actually… How old are you anyways?" Casey asked. "Fifteen" Raph answered.

Casey remained silent for a while. "Shit… Your parents will be mad if they find out" Casey said adding: "Actually, aren't your parents worried about you staying out this late?" "Well it's not that late yet… But I think I should be going" Raph said when he came back from the toilet.

"You want me to get you home?" Casey asked. "Nah, I'm fine" Raph said. His face was slightly red. "You're sure? Actually, maybe you should call your parents and tell them that you're staying here" Casey said. "No, it's okay, I live close-by" Raph said and headed towards the front door.

"Umm… If you want, you can come here to hang around with me again if you feel like it" Casey said. "Yeah, I'll come back if I feel like listening your gloomy stories" Raph said. "Hey, don't push your luck kid" Casey shouted. Raph grinned and left.

It wasn't very hard to find a manhole. Raph got in and headed towards home. Even though it was hard to walk, he felt so good. All his worries seemed to be gone away. Raphael had reached the lair and behind the door, Sensei was waiting for him.

"So is your mind clear now?" Master Splinter asked. "Eh… Let's say I have calmed down" Raph said. "Raph, you're back!" Leo shouted relieved. He and Mikey were sitting on the couch, watching the TV. "Huh? Raph came back?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, I'm back" Raph said and walked towards his brothers. In front of Mikey he stopped and said: "I'm sorry for getting out of the control. I knew that the thing with the self was only an accident but still got so mad over it". "Whoah. Raph is apologizing. Are you sure that you feeling alright Raph? " Mikey teased.

"Actually your face looks a little bit red Raph, are you feeling feverish?" Leo asked and touched Raph's forehead. "Urgh… It's not that… I… I'll go to sleep" Raph said and tied to flee. "Oh and Raphael, make sure that this is the last time you come home drunk. You're not yet old enough to drink" Splinter said.

Raph froze. Leo and Mikey stared him. "Raph… You didn't go out to get some air but get yourself drunk instead?" Leo asked coldly. "Uuh, Raphie, you're a bad boy…" Mikey said. "I…Met somebody and talked with him and he offered me some cans. I swear that I thought they were soft drinks…" Raph said.

"Yeah, right, sure you did… " Mikey said. "No, seriously. I this guy by accident and seeing another hot head made me think about my own actions" Raph explained. "Who's this mysterious man? Your boyfriend?" Mikey teased.

"Mikey, I'm not gay. He's called Casey. He's an adult and even though he's a thick head, he's actually a pretty cool guy. He can fight and he has a motorcycle" Raph explained. "Hey, you think we could also meet him?" Mikey asked. "Why? Get your own friends" Raph answered.

"Hey, it's not exactly easy to get friends when you're not allowed to show them your face" Mikey said. "In your case. you might have more chances with your face covered" Raph said. "Hey!" Mikey shouted offended.

The front door opened again and Don came in. "Huh? You guys are still up?" he asked. "Don, you're late" Leo said. "Yeah, but guess what guys! The van I've been fixing is working!" Don said overjoyed. "Hey, let's go test ride!" Mikey said.

"I think you guys are going to bed now" Splinter said. "But sensei… Now would be perfect time to test it when there's not much traffic" Mikey said. "No Mikey, sensei is right. Besides, I'm already beat" Don said. "Me too" Raph said. "Well I'm not, can I go to test it myself?" Mikey asked. "Let's see…No" Don said. "Awwww, why not?" Mikey asked.

"Isn't that obvious? Do you even have any idea how to drive?" Don asked. "Um… I have seen people driving in movies… Like you knew how to drive either!" Mikey shouted. "Actually I do" Don answered. Raph decided that it was a good time to leave. He went in his room, fell on the bed without taking his clothes off. Raphael was fast asleep.

"Haha, you're being sloppy Raphie" Mikey scoffed dodging Raph's attacks. "Those drinks were poisoned after all…" Raph said trying to hit Mikey but it seemed like he wasn't even trying too seriously. "Raphael, use more your feet. And you're way too slow!" Splinter instructed.

Raph was going to answer but turned pale and run off holding his hand over his mouth. "Does this mean I won?" Mikey asked merrily. Splinter smirked. "Remember my sons, today's friend can be tomorrow's enemy" Splinter said. "Huh?" Don said wondering why Splinter said something like that out of the blue.


	4. Chapter 4: The foot clan

4: The foot clan

"Wow, it looks awesome!" Mikey screamed. All of the four teenagers were standing outside the garage, around the car Don had rebuilt. Now it looked like some kind of a battle van straight from an action movie. "Oh yeah? Wait until you see the inside" Don said smiling proudly.

He opened the back door. Inside the car, there were lots of weird looking machines and big screens probably made of old televisions. There was a bench against the left wall and next to it was a small fridge. At the front, there were separate seats for four persons.

"Good work Don" Leo said smiling and put his hand on Donatello's shoulder. "Thanks, but I couldn't get this done without your help" Don said. "Enough of the formalities, let's drive it!" Raph said excited. "Umm… Okay, let's go in" Don said and stepped in.

Don took the driver's seat. Raph sat next to him and Mikey behind Raph. Leo seated behind Don. "Um… Hey Don, can you actually drive this thing?" Mikey asked. "Of course I can, I was the one who built it after all" Don said and started the car.

"So, where should we go?" Don asked and drove on the route. "Pizza?" Mikey asked with shining eyes. "We don't have any money of our own…" Leo said. "Let's hit the highway" Raph said. "Highway, got it… Let's see the easiest way to get there…" Don mumbled and started to tap the navigator's buttons.

When they reached the highway, they were finally able to go faster. The others seemed excited but Raph seemed a little bit unsatisfied. "What's wrong Raph? Motion sickness?" Leo asked merrily. "No. It's just missing something… We're definitely going faster than I did on Casey's motorcycle but I can't feel the speed the same way" Raph said.

"Well, it's because you can't feel the wind" Don said. "Hey, let's turn the ventilation faster so Raphie can feel it" Mikey said. "Let's throw Mikey out so he could feel the wind" Raph said. "I'll pass, I don't really want to feel it anyways" Mikey said.

"If you want a motorcycle, I think I can build one for you" Don said. "You would? If you do, I promise no geek-jokes for a week!" "Tha-, Wait, isn't a week a pretty short time?" Don asked Raph ignored him. "I'm hungry. Hey Don, is there something to eat in your fridge?" Mikey asked. "Sorry…I haven't loaded it yet. Maybe we should head back" Don said.

They were driving in the Museum block when suddenly, the whole city blacked out. "Huh? The lights disappeared" Mikey said. "Hey look at that!" Leo said and pointed the museum's roof. There were some guys in ninja costumes sneaking inside the building. Don stopped the car and turned the lights off.

"That can't be legal" Raph said. "Maybe but it's not really our business… We should…" Leo said still staring the ninjas. "Um, Leo, I don't think Raph hears you from here" Mikey said. Leo looked at the direction where Raph was sitting just a while ago. Raph was gone.

Two ninjas were wandering around the museum searching something. They reached a showcase containing an ancient sword. The ninjas cut the glass protecting the sword and were going to take the sword out using a metal gauntlet.

"Haven't your Mom ever taught you that stealing is bad?" Raph said throwing a shuriken towards the ninja with the gauntlet. The ninjas looked each other and the one without the metal gauntlet attacked on Raph.

"Huh? Hey, you're better than those Purple Dragon guys" Raph said and kicked the ninja. The ninja dodged his kick but wasn't able to dodge Raph's punch. A moment later, the ninja was lying on the ground and Raph looked at the one stealing the sword and said grinning: "Next one"

Instead of attacking Raph, the ninja gave a sign and more ninjas came out. They all were wearing the same costume: black uniforms with a red foot symbol on their chests and backs. There were at least twenty of them and they had surrounded Raph.

"Me and my big mouth…" Raph complained. All of the ninjas with the foot symbol were about to attack on him but they froze when they heard a voice shouting: "Need some help Raph?" Leo was standing on upper level, behind him were Mikey and Don. They jumped down and attacked on the ninjas with foot symbols.

"These guys are good" Don said. "Yeah, but not as good as us" Mikey said and hit one of the ninjas with his nunchakus. "Well, let's just hope that they won't call more friends…" Leo said and hit two of them with his swords.

"Leo, the sword" Raph shouted. "Huh? Is something wrong with my sword?" Leo asked and looked at his swords. "Not your swords idiot! The ninjas are trying to steal that sword behind you!" Raph shouted dodging attacks.

Leo turned around and saw one of the ninjas taking the sword out. The ninja was going to run away but Leo attacked on him. The ninja blocked Leo's attack with the sword and then swung it, causing some kind of electrical wave to knock Leo down. The ninja escaped with the sword and the others followed him.

"Are you okay Leo?" Don asked. "Yeah… Just…What was that thing?" Leo mumbled and got up swaying a little. "Let's go after them" Raph said ready to follow the ninjas but Leo took Raph's wrist and said: "No, we already did enough… Let's get out before somebody comes"

"I can't believe we just let them go" Raph said sitting on their lair's couch. "I can't believe that you just recklessly rushed there in the first place..." Leo said. "I've been wondering… What are ninjas doing in New York?" Don said. "Yeah and what's with their logo? A smelly foot?" Mikey asked.

"Foot?" Splinter voice asked a little bit shocked. The teens turned around. Splinter was standing behind them, holding a tray with tea and some snacks. He had a worried expression on his face.

"Um, yeah. They were wearing red foot symbols on their chests and backs" Don said. "Can you draw that symbol?" Splinter asked with serious tone. Mikey quickly drew the symbol and said: "Here you go". Splinter took the paper.

"This is…But how…?" Splinter asked looking at the picture Mikey drew. "What? What is it?" Leo asked. Splinter took a long breath. "It's the symbol of the foot clan. The clan that was supposed to be destroyed by the Shredder. Apparently, it wasn't. Or more likely, the Shredder re-created the foot clan" Splinter said.

"Tell me my sons, what happened? How did you come across them?" Splinter asked. Donatello told him the whole story, including the stolen sword. "They way you described that sword… I think I've seen it before…. Yes, my Sensei had a sword just like that. The sword that he never used" Splinter said.

"What the point having a sword in the first place if you never use it?" Mikey asked. "Mikey, lots of people use them as decorations" Don said. "I was told that the sword hold mystical powers and was created to keep the evil under control" Splinter told.

"A magic sword, cool!" Mikey shouted. "Magical sword? No way something like that could exist…" Don said as skeptical. "Well…I have to admit that it seemed like magic to me. I was knocked down by some strange energy wave…" Leo said. "It can be explained with science" Don said.

"Anyways that sword is something that should never fall on the hands of evil" Splinter said. "Yes, Splinter is right! Let's steal it back!" Raph said. "NO!" Splinter shouted. All the teenagers froze. "The Shredder is an enemy that you are not ready to fight against. And with the sword, he's even more dangerous" Splinter said.

"What? We should just let the Shredder have the sword? " Raph asked. "Yes" Splinter said and then stated: "This conversation is over. I strictly forbid you going after both the sword and the Shredder". After he thought he had made his point clear, Splinter left the room.

"That sword… I wonder if I can find some information of it from the internet" Don said and opened his computer. "Hey can you also look if you can find something about Oroku Saki? Splinter has always told us that we need to learn about our enemy" Leo asked. "Yeah wait a little… Hmm… It seems like that sword was called the sword of Tengu" Don said.

"And?" Mikey asked. "And… Somebody donated it for the Museum anonymously. It's over three hundred years old" Don said. "Else?" Leo asked. "That's all the information I can find… At least in English… I need more time if I try to find something in Japanese…" Don said.

"How about Oroku Saki?" Raph asked. "There's lots about him. It seems that he is a big name in the business world… His main office is here in New York… " Don said. "Wait, you got its address?" Raph asked and tried to get closer the screen. "Yeah. I mean… " Don answered and soon realized that he was not supposed to say that.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Raph asked. "Are you crazy? You can't just rush there" Leo said. "Well, technically he can do that" Don said and was silenced by Leo's glaring. "Then what do YOU think we should do?" Raph spitted. "Nothing. Just like Splinter said. It's not really our business" Leo said.

"Not our business? Doesn't Splinter always teach us to do the right thing? I don't see how letting the Shredder have the sword is the right thing" Raph said. "We don't know if he will even use it" Leo said. "But then why to steal that thing in the first place?" Raph asked. "Because it matched on his furniture?" Mikey asked. Raph glared at Mikey.

"I think I can find out what the Shredder is planning" Don said and started tapping the keyboard quickly. "Um… What are you doing?" Mikey asked. "I'm trying to hack in their system to find out what the Shredder is going to do with the sword" Don answered.

"What? Like something like that could be easily…" Raph said but couldn't finish when Don shouted: "Done!" "Okay, I guess it can" Raph said. "So, what's their plan?" Leo asked. "Um… Not sure… There are blueprints of some kind of machine… It seems to be using the sword as its power source…" Don said going through the files.

Suddenly his computer froze. "Crap, I was caught" Don said, looked around his, took a flash drive and connected it with his computer. Soon the computer was returned to normal. "Hack there again" Mikey said. "No way, it's too dangerous…" Don answered.

"So, you couldn't find out their plan after all" Raph said disappointed. "I wouldn't say that. The machine was built for some underwater searching so most likely we'll be able to find it somewhere near the coast" Don said searching something on his computer.

"There is a renovation site at one of the ports" Don said continuing: "Most likely, the machine is held there." "So, what are we waiting for?" Raph asked restlessly. "Splinter said…" Leo started but Raph interrupted him saying: "I know what he said! I'm not deaf god damnit. But the Shredder might be trying to find something even more dangerous than the sword" Raph said.

"Well…. I think we should at least go to find out what they are up to" Don said. "Maybe you're right. But nobody tries to make their moves unless I give you a permission" Leo said. "Hmph, why should I listen to you?" Raph asked. "Well, maybe because I'm your leader" Leo said with demanding tone. "Yeah whatever" Raph said.

"It's pretty far from here so it would be best to go with the battle van" Donatello said. "Battle van? Seriously?" Raph asked. Don blushed and said: "Well… I have equipped it with some weapons and other useful technology…" "WOW! That…is…so… COOL!" Mikey shouted. Don blushed.

Donatello gathered some stuff and they headed towards the garage where the van was held. The teenagers entered in the van and Don started unloading the stuff he brought with him "Hey can I drive?" Raph asked. "You? I don' know… It's…" Don started but Raph had already started the car and accelerated quickly.

Because of the sudden movement, Don, Leo and Mikey fell on the van's floor. Raph drove outside the garage and headed towards the road. He was driving way too fast. "RAPH, SLOW DOWN! " Don shouted. "If you drive like this we'll get cops after us" Leo said. "Relax Leo, they wouldn't be able to catch us" Raph laughed. "No motorcycle for you if you won't slow down…" Don said. Raph slowed down immediately.

"Um… Raph… Do you know where are you going?" Mikey asked suspiciously. "Of course I…" Raph started self-confidently but finished his phrase with: "…don't know. Somebody, put the directions on that thing" "That thing is a navigator" Don said.

"Umm… Let see… If I click here…" Mikey said and clicked the navigator. "NO! DON'T TOUCH IT, I'LL DO IT!" Don shouted and took the navigator away from Mikey and started tapping the address on it. "Raph, I think you're not on the right lane" Leo said. "Shut up, I know what I'm doing" Raph said but still changed the lane.

"Here, it tells you what to do" Don said and put the navigator back on its place. Raph followed the navigator's instructions. When they started to get close enough Don ordered him to hide the car. After the car was hidden, they came out.

"Okay… Here's the plan: Mikey and Raph, you stay near the car and keep an eye on it while me and Don try to find out what they are trying to do" Leo explained. "What? We don't need people to keep eye on the car" Raph argued.

"Yeah my car won't be stolen, I have an alarm system on it… And this…" Don raised a thing he was holding in his hand. It looked like a small turtle. "What is that?" Raph asked. "It's… Something like a cell phone… With this I can also control the battle van. With a one button push, I can get the battle van come to me" Don explained.

"Yeah but… What's with the turtle shape?" Raph asked. "Um… I just like turtles…" Don said blushing. "I think it's cute" Mikey said smiling. "I think it's dumb" Raph said. "I… Made four of them, one for each" Don said and took the other ones out of his pockets.

"WOW, COOL!" Mikey shouted and took one of the phones. "A shell phone…" he said. "Here" Don said and offered one for Leo. "Thanks" Leo thanked and added: "These will be useful". Don offered one for Raph too but he didn't take it saying: "I don't want one, they look stupid"

"You are stupid" Mikey said. "There's more that meets the eye in these" Don said. "Yeah like what?" Raph asked sarcastically. "Well…" Don said and tossed one far away. "Oh, you can throw them, wow… How original…" Raph said unimpressed.

Don smiled. "Come here turtlebot one!" Don shouted. Soon the shell phone started to run towards them. It had four little metallic legs. Don raised it on the ground and the legs went back inside the phone. "It's also waterproof, shockproof…" Don listed. "Okay, okay, I take it" Raph said and grabbed one of the shell cells.

"How do you use these things?" Leo asked while tapping the buttons on the shell phone. Don shortly explained how to use them. "So where's the battle van calling button?"Mikey asked examining his cell. "You guys don't have that, only mine has" Don said. "What? Stingy…" Mikey said.

"Um Don, they do have one serious weakness though" Leo said. "Huh? What?" Don asked. "Come here turtlebot one! Come here turtlebot three! Come here turtlebot four!" Leo shouted and all the turtlebots came to him. The other guys looked at Don. "Um… Yeah that thing… I was still kinda working on them… " Don said embarrassed.

"Enough talk, let's go" Raph said. "Okay but we are here just to spy on them, do not attack on them" Leo said. "Okay okay, I get it, I'll go now!" Raph said. "Wait, take this too" Don said and offered him some weird looking glasses. "It has a night vision and zoom" Don said.

"Yeah, thanks" Raph said, took the glasses and left. "Hey, I haven't yet explained how they work" Don shouted after Raph. "I think he'll figure that out himself" Leo said. Don nodded and offered Leo and Mikey the glasses then wore ones himself.

"Oh and one more thing… I'm going to watch over them from the sky using this" Don said and took out backpack. "Wow, Don, did you hit your head or something?" Mikey asked. "No, wait a little, you'll see" Don said.

Don climbed on one the tallest buildings. He looked around a bit and then jumped. "WHAT? Is he crazy?!" Mikey shouted. But Don didn't fall on the ground. He was…Flying? He wore some kind of wings that kept him in the air.

Leo's shell rang. "So, am I awesome or what?" Don's voice said on the shell phone. "It's…" Leo started but Mikey shouted over him: "IT'S SO COOL! I want to try it too!" "Heh, thanks. I'll be spying them from the sky, you two, head towards the retaliation site" Don said."Roger that" Leo said.

"Wow this is so cool… I'm actually flying" Don thought. "Now then… Where is that machine…." Don thought and looked around. He didn't need look for it long: there was a machine beaming bluish rays on the water forcing the water to move out of its way revealing the bottom of the lake. There were ten guys watching over the machine.

"Leo, I found the machine… I can see ten men guarding it" Don said. "Yeah, I see some of them here…" Leo said. "It seems like they haven't found anything yet… I'll…" Don said but suddenly a strong wind caused by the searching machine knocked him down. He fell on the water.

"Don, what happened? Answer to me" Leo's voice said on the drowning shell phone. Don got the backpack off and let it drown. He grabbed the shell phone and got on the surface. "Good thing I made these turtlebots waterproof" Don said.

He suddenly noticed that the ninjas were looking at him. "Um guys… I think they saw me…" Don said before diving. Some of the ninjas jumped on the water. Don went under the dock and was able to breathe there for a short time before he noticed the foot ninjas coming after him. Instead of running away, he was prepared for an underwater combat.

"Mikey, Raph, can you hear me?" Leo asked through the phone. "Yeah" both of them answered. "Don was seen and foot ninjas went after him. He's underwater right now…" Leo said. "So we go to help him?" Raph asked. "Yes but we don't know how many of them there are. Don said that he was able to see ten guys but there must be more of them hiding" Leo said.

"Let's use someone as bait. One of us approaches the sword and makes the ninjas come out, someone will get the car so we'll be able to escape quickly and the last one helps Don" Raph said. "Wait… You're going to be the bait so you could fight with those guys? Raph, your plan is stupid" Leo said. "We don't have time for this, I'm going…" Raph said and jumped middle of the enemy's area.

"That guy is an idiot…. Mikey, get the car quickly" Leo said. "Yeah, I'll go" Mikey said. "I need to go to help Don" Leo thought and searched a place where he could dive without the foot ninja noticing him.

"Hey, nice beam gun you have there, got it from your Mom?" Raph asked grinning. The ninjas near to the machine looked at each other and gave a sign to the others to come out. Soon Raphael was surrounded by at least fifty foot ninjas.

"Is that all?" Raph shouted. The ninjas attacked on him and so begun their fiery battle. At the same time, Don was having a rather cold battle against the foot ninjas. It was hard to fight under the water and it was hard to hold his breath while fighting. Besides, he was standing against eight foot ninjas alone.

He knocked down few of them and swam up to get some air. But the ninjas couldn't allow that and tried to pull him underwater. Don got only a short gasp of air before he had to start fighting again. He was getting cold and his limbs were getting stiff. The foot ninjas did seem to be doing just fine underwater.

Don fought against them but it didn't seem like either of them was going to give up. Don's sight started to get darker and darker as he run out of the oxygen. He became to sink. Suddenly the ninjas in front of him were knocked down and somebody dragged him on the surface.

"Are you okay Don?" Leo asked. "Yeah… I think…" Don answered out of breath. "Let's go, Raph is fighting alone against god-knows-how-many men and Mikey is trying to get the car here" Leo said. "Wait… Mikey is trying to get the car?" Don asked.

"Hmm… So, how do I get in?" Mikey asked. "I don't have the keys…" he continued. "Ha, I bet I can pick the lock" Mikey said and tried it but when he the pin touched the lock, the car gave him an electric shock. "Ouch… That must have been part of that anti-criminal system Don talked about…" Mikey said.

"Um… Should I go back to get the keys? Wait that would be pointless… " Mikey pondered. "Maybe I can get inside through the car's cap" Mikey thought and jumped on the van. Suddenly the car stared to move by itself and Mikey had to grab tightly so he would fall off.

"This… Isn't…As fun…As I expected…." Raph huffed while trying to protect himself. Raph had a wound on his right cheek and he didn't have very much space to move around. He had been able to knock out only five of foot ninjas. Because whenever he tried to attack on someone, somebody else was already attacking on him and he had to change his target quickly.

"Look, they found something" Don said and pointed a helicopter flying over them. "Is that… An armor?" Leo asked and then quickly added: "Wait we don't have time for this let's get on the coast… " Leo said. "Oh yeah, sorry" Don said and started swimming forwards again.

Leo looked at the searching machine and noticed that there were only two guys guarding it. The others were fighting against Raph. "Hey Don… You called the van right? It's going to be here in any minute?" Leo asked. "Yeah" Don answered.

"Go to help Raph. I'll get the sword" Leo said. "What?" Don asked. "Well because we're already in this mess, it's better just to take it with us…." Leo said. "Okay I understand. I'll try to keep as many of them as possible away from you" Don said. Leo nodded and their ways separated.

Leo dived close the machine and made a quick surprise attack on the guys guarding the sword. He knocked them out and tried to take the sword with his bare hands but felt sharp pain while touching it. He saw a metal gauntlet on the ground and took it. He wore it and grabbed the sword.

Mikey and the van had arrived. Mikey jumped off the vans roof and protected Don while he was opening the door. All the three boys went in and Don drove the car closer to the machine and Leo. Leo jumped on the van's roof and they escaped. When they were far enough, Leo got inside the van through the backdoor while the car was still moving.

"I got the sword" Leo said. "Raph, take the wheel" Don said, switched places with Raph and went to see the sword. "Don't touch it with your bare hands" Leo said and put the sword on the bench. He offered the metal gauntlet for Don. "Thanks… I just need to make sure that there isn't a tracking device on this thing" Don said and started to examine the sword. "Why would somebody put a tracking device on it?" Mikey asked.

After scanning it with one of his machines Don said: "It's clear, no tracking devices". "Well duh, of course not" Mikey said. "Well if I knew somebody might be after something that I had I would out a tracker on it" Don said.

"What should we do with the sword? Return it to the museum?" Raph asked. "No, I think we should show it to Splinter and ask him what to do with it" Leo answered. "What?! Are you crazy?!" Raph shouted turning around to see Leo's face. "Raph, the road, the road!" Mikey shouted panicking.

"Well… He definitely will be mad at us because we disobeyed him but still it would be best to be honest. Splinter can't fooled" Leo said. "Leo is right" Don said. "Yeah yeah, Splinter Jr. is always right" Raph said. Leo decided it would be best just to ignore Raph.

All the four teenagers were sitting in row in front of Splinter who was holding the sword of Tengu. "So not only you went to spy them without my permission, you also let them see you, attacked on them and stole the sword? Is there anything else?" Splinter asked.

"Raph also broke some rules of the road but nobody saw that so I think it's okay" Mikey said. Raph gnarled to Mikey, glaring at him like wanting to say: "You'll be so dead" so Mikey tried to change the subject saying: "Um Raph, you have some blood on your face" "Really? Do you want your face to match with mine?" Raph snarled. Mikey yelped.

"This sword looks exactly the same as the one my master had. In fact, I think it might be even the very same sword" Splinter said. "So… What'll we do with it?" Leo asked. "Returning it to the Museum would be pointless, the Shredder would just steal it again" Splinter said continuing: "We'll keep it safe here."

"Master Shredder… I have bad news and good news" a foot ninja said. He was standing in a moonlit room in front of a dark figure sitting behind a table. "Bad news? I was expecting only the good news, Kenji " a low voice said.

"Sir, we were able to get what we were searching for but the sword of Tengu got stolen" a guy called Kenji said. "Stolen?" the Shredder said. "Yes. It seems like we aren't the only ninjas around here… Four guys attacked on us and took the sword. They were too fast, we weren't able to chase after them…" Kenji said bowing his head down.

"You are saying that normal humans were too much for you?" the Shredder asked. "They were strong. They were using similar techniques to ours" Kenji said. "Similar?" the Shredder asked. "Yeah, the ones that should be only known by the members of the foot clan" Kenji said.

"Kenji, I want you to bring me those four guys. Next time you meet them, don't hold back. Oh, but of course, make sure that at least one of them will be able to speak after you dealt with them…" the Shredder said. "Yes Master" Kenji said, bowed and left.


	5. Chapter 5: Mikey's new friends

5: Mikey's new friends

Two days ago Don had finished Raph's motorcycle. Raph had asked Casey to teach him how to drive it. Casey promised to teach him next Saturday and that was… This day. Donatello was working with his turtlebots, or how Mikey called them, shell cells. Leonardo was doing some private practicing and Mikey was…

"Booreeed…." Mikey complained lying upside down on the couch and changing the channels. He slowly dripped off the couch. When he had reached the floor, he jumped up. "Hey Raph, where are you going?" Mikey asked when he saw Raph heading out.

"Out. Casey is going to teach me how to drive a motorcycle…" Raph said. "Hey, can I come with you?" Mikey asked. "Uh… Sorry Mike, not this time. " Raph said."Why not?" Mikey asked. "Do you have a motorcycle?" Raph asked. "No?" Mikey answered. "See? I'll take you with me some other time… Bye then" Raph said and left.

"Well, I still do have two other brothers left…" Mikey thought and went to Leo. Leo was trying to meditate. "Hey Leo, what are you doing?" Mikey asked. Leo remained still and silent. "Huh? Hey Leooo, can you heeear me?" Mikey shouted in Leo's ear.

Leo's patience started to crumble. "Mikey I'm trying to meditate…" Leo said calmly his eyes still closed. "Oh, I thought you had fell asleep sitting" Mikey said and continued: "Hey Leo, let's go to skateboard together"

"I can't I'm practicing right now" Leo said. "But isn't skateboarding an exercise too?" Mikey asked. "Mikey… Get out…" Leo said. "Okay" Mikey said sounding a little bit sad. "I'm sorry that I bothered you…" Mikey said and left. Leo sighed. He tried to clear his mind again and continue with his meditation.

"Hey Don, what are you doing?" Mikey asked standing behind Don. "I'm trying to adjust the turtlebots" Don answered focused on the turtlebots. "Cool…. Hey what is this thing?" Mikey asked and took one of Don's inventions that was lying on the table. There was a button. And everyone knows that buttons are meant to be pushed.

Don turned around to see what Mikey was holding. "What… Ah that is..!" he shouted. Too late. Mikey had already pushed the button. Smoke came out of the machine. They both coughed and Don took his invention away from Mikey. "Don't… Cough… Touch anything" Don said while coughing. He pushed the button again and the machine stopped smoking.

"How was I…Cough… Supposed to know…. It would do that?" Mikey said. He had gotten some smoke in his eyes and they were hurting. He rubbed them and accidentally bumped in to a chair where Don was keeping some stuff in a box. The chair fell and all the stuff scattered on the floor.

"Whoops… Sorry… I'll clean it up…" Mikey said and started to pick up the stuff on the floor in to a box. "No need to…" Don said coldly and took the box away from Mikey. "Huh? I just…" Mikey started but Don said: "Go to bother somebody else, I need to work"

"Bother? So that's what you all think I am? A bother? Fine! I'll just go to find some new friends!" Mikey shouted and rushed out. "Mikey, I didn't mean it that way!" Don shouted but Mikey was already gone.

Mikey got on the surface. There, he realized that it wouldn't be easy to get new friends with wearing a ninja costume. Well, at least ones of his age anyways. Miket climbed on the rooftop and headed towards April's apartment. Mikey remembered that April was living a house with an antique store that his father used to run.

When Mikey reached April's house, he noticed that the antique store was back in the business. He looked carefully in and saw April behind the counter. There weren't any customers so Mikey decided to go in.

"Oh, Mikey, what a surprise!" April said smiling when Mikey entered in the shop. "Hi April… This shop is back in the business I see?" Mikey said. "Yes, I decide to re-open it… Since I lost my old workplace…" April said.

Mikey looked around a bit. There was lots of expensive looking stuff in there. "You guys don't visit often" April said. "Um yeah… Everyone has stuff to do…"Mikey said bitterly. "Are you okay? Did something happen?" April asked worriedly.

"Umm… Nothing much.. April, can you borrow me some more normal looking clothes? Something that looks cool on me" Mikey asked. "Huh? Sure but my clothes are women's clothes… Though there should be some less girly ones too" April said.

April put a "be right back" sign on the door and went upstairs to get some clothes for Mikey. Soon, Mikey was standing there wearing a green hoodie and his own black shorts and gloves. He had April's river belt and sunglasses on him. "Thanks, this will do" Mikey said and was about to leave.

"Wait, you forgot your weapons" April said and offered him his nunchakus. "I don't need them, keep them here safe for me, will you?" Mikey said adding: "I'll come to get them later" "Okay, bye" April said. Mikey said goodbye to her and left.

"Hm… So where all the teenagers usually hang out?" Mikey thought while he was walking around the city. He walked through a park and noticed some boys at his age skateboarding. "Those guys seem cool" Mikey thought and got closer.

The boys were doing some tricks. One of them was trying to do Mikey's favorite trick but failed. The others laughed at the boy who fell and said: "Try something easier". Mikey thought that if he were able to impress those guys, they would definitely want to become his friends.

"Hey, can I try?" Mikey asked and walked towards the boys. The boys looked at each other and laughed. " Well, go ahead Shorty, just make sure that you don't break my board" one of the boys said and kicked his board to Mikey. Mikey jumped on it, speeded up and made the move the other guy failed at.

When he noticed the boys' awestricken faces Mikey grinned and continued doing tricks. He finished the whole set with the special move he had developed himself. When he finished one of the boys shouted: "Dude, you're cool! Are you professional or something?"

"Nah, I just do this for fun" Mikey said a little bit proud. "Hey, what's your name?" a tall boy with long black hair on a ponytail asked. "I'm Michelangelo but people call me just Mikey" Mikey said. "I'm Brian. These are Tom and Jack" Brian said and pointed at the two other guys.

Tom had a short, almost white hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a black hoodie and loose jeans. He was the shortest of the three boys but still lot taller than Mikey. Jack's hair was dyed blue and he was wearing a leather jacket and tight black jeans.

"Nice to meet you" Mikey said. "Hey want to hung out with us? You could try to teach us some of those tricks of yours. We can go to some burgers and milkshakes later, it's on me Mike" Brian said. "Well, I guess I don't have anything else to do…" Mikey said trying to be cool.

After skateboarding for hours, the guys got tired. "This is getting boring, let's move on" Brian said. "We're going to eat now?" Mikey asked. "Yeah, let's go" Brian said and the other boys followed him. They got in a burger place nearby.

Brian ordered the food for them. Mikey was hungry and ate his portion quickly he wasn't still satisfied but didn't really dare to ask Brian to buy him more. "Wow, you sure have an appetite. Want my fries? I don't really like them" Brian said. "Sure" Mikey said and took the fries Brian was offering.

Some girls entered in the restaurant. Tom whistled and said: "Hotties" "The blonde one has nice boobs" Jack said checking the girls out. The girls walked past them and Tom slapped one of the girls' asses. The girl screamed surprised and look at Tom angrily.

"Hey babe, come sit here with us" Tom said. "As if I would" the girl said and tried to leave but Tom grabbed her hand saying: "C'mon, we won't bite… If you don't want us to". Normally, Mikey would have tried to help the girl but he didn't want his new friends to abandon him.

"Tom, let her go" Brian said. Tom let the girl's hand go. "Sorry, my friend's being rude. I'll buy you an ice-cream or something to make it up okay?" Brian said smiling and got up. He headed towards the counter with the girl, his right hand on girl's waist.

"Tch, again… Why do the girls always reject me but not him?" Tom said. "Maybe they feel more comfortable with him because he has long hair like them?" Mikey tried joke but soon realized that his joke wasn't actually funny at all. "Um what?" Tom asked.

"I… Hey, the girl with big boobs dropped something, her cleavage is showing, look!" Mikey said pointing at the girl who was picking her wallet on the ground. The guys turned in the way Mikey was pointing at. Mikey was relieved that the guys took the bait.

After they left the restaurant, they headed a game center. They stayed there pretty late. When it was getting dark, Mikey started to think that maybe others were worried about him and he should return home. "Hey Mike, do you have a curfew?" Brian asked. "What? Of course I don't" Mikey said.

"Cool, hey, let's quit this baby stuff and go have some real fun" Brian said. They left the game center and headed to some dark alley. "Um, so, what is this "real fun" you're talking about?" Mikey asked. "Oh you'll see…" Brian said mysteriously.

"Hey this place looks fine" Brian said and took out a spray paint bottle. He shook it and started spraying on the clean white walls. "Um, we shouldn't be doing this…" Mikey said. "Did you say something Mike?" Brian asked. "The spray…" Mikey said.

"Oh yeah… Here, have this" Brian said and got another spray paint bottle from his bag. "Thanks…" Mikey said. He looked at the wall. If it had been an apartment building, Mikey wouldn't have hesitated to paint. But it was somebody's detached house.

"Let's be quick" Brian said. He was painting something with purple spray. When Mikey looked the picture more carefully, he soon realized that it was picture of a Dragon. "Purple Dragon…" Mikey said out loud surprised.

"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you… We're… Well something like apprentice Dragons. After few more test, we'll be formal members" Brian said smiling. "Why you want to be part of them?" Mikey asked. "Why? Because they are cool, that's why. The toughest street gang on this area" Brian said.

Mikey was panicking a little. What should he do? Leave? "Hey maybe you could join too? We're going to their meeting this nigh, you should come too… If you aren't scared that is" Brian said. "Scared? Me? No way. The Purple Dragons sound cool, I'm in" Mikey lied.

"I'm back" Raph said stepping in their lair. "Welcome back" Don said. Raph looked around a little. "Hey, where's Mikey?" he asked. "He headed out… It's getting late so he should be back soon…" Don said. "Huh? Alone?" Raph asked.

"I think he overreacted a little when I told him that I needed to work in peace and he rushed out" Don said. "Wait and you just let him go?" Raph asked. "Um yeah? He's not as stubborn as you so he would come back eventually…" Don said.

"Yeah but we are talking about Mikey here. He has a special skill to get himself in trouble" Raph said. "Maybe he's with April" Don said. "April? Okay, I'll go to see April" Raph said and turned around heading out again. "Hey take this with you just in case" Don said and threw Raph's shell cell towards it owner. "Okay, thanks" Raph said catching the cell.

"So, are you having fun?" Brian asked. He was holding a beer can. The boys were sitting in a shabby hall building. In the middle, there was some kind of fighting arena surrounded by stands. There was a match going on. Some muscular guys fight against each others. "Um… Yeah" Mikey lied.

"Hey Mike, want some too?" Tom asked and offered him a beer. "No thanks, I don't drink" Mikey said remembering how Master Splinter had scolded Raph for drinking. "You don't?" Brian asked and continued: "Have you even ever tasted beer?"

"Um, no. My Dad is really strict about that stuff" Mikey said. "He won't find out if you taste just a little" Brian said and offered the beer to Mikey. Mikey thought that only tasting it wouldn't be so bad. He drank a little but soon spitted it out.

"Yuck… How Raph can drink this stuff…" Mikey said. "Raph? Who's that?" Brian asked laughing. "My older brother... " Mikey said. "Is he an adult?" Brian asked. "No, he's also fifteen… " Mikey said. "I thought your father was really strict about drinking?" Brian said.

"Well, let's say he became strict after my brother came home drunk" Mikey said. "And seeing how he was next morning, I think I don't even want to drink…" Mikey said. "Haha, I can understand that… I don't really like having hangovers either…" Brian laughed. "But being drunk is fun" Tom said. "Yeah, hangovers are small price to pay" Brian said.

A big, bald guy came to them. "Hey kids, today is your chance to get promoted" the guy said. "You mean we'll have our final test?" Brian asked. "Well, if you perform well enough on the stage, we'll make you formal members" the Purple Dragon said.

"But if you don't want to go on the stage yet, we can keep on doing the tests" the Purple Dragon said. "Of course we want to go on stage, right guys?" Brian asked. "Yeah" Tom said. "Well, we would have to done that sooner or later anyways…" Jack said.

"Is the new guy coming with you?" the Purple Dragon asked. "Of course, I'm not afraid of some Purple Dragons" Mikey said. The bald guy raised his eyebrow. "I m mean I'm not afraid of anyone" Mikey corrected.

"Fine… Because you're new, it'll be no weapons fight and a group against a group. You don't need to win, it's enough that you fight well" the Purple Dragon said but added: "Though you should aim for victory" "Heh, we'll win, you'll see" Brian said overly confident.

They were set against a bunch of some really big guys. The guys looked at the teenagers and laughed a little. "No hard feelings after you get hurt" one of the men said. "That's what I was going to tell you" Mikey laughed. "You cheeky brat, you won't be laughing long" the man said. "Let the match begin" the referee shouted.

One of the Purple Dragons run toward Mikey and was trying to knock him down with the first punch and put too much speed and strength on it. All Mikey needed to do was just dodge the man and kick his legs to make him fall. Soon the Purple Dragon was lying on the ground.

Brian and Jack were doing fine on their own, but Tom was having some trouble with the guy he was against. Mikey decided to help him first and knocked down who was targeting at Tom. Meanwhile, Brian and Jack had taken care of the two other men.

"You're not only good at skateboarding I see" Brian said. "Heh, I'm a ninja" Mikey said. One of the Purple Dragons near the battle arena heard Mikey's words. "You… You sound familiar…" the guy said looked at Mikey.

"I know who you are! You are one of those ninja kids we fought against" the Purple Dragon said. "Uh, no, you're mistaken, I was just joking" Mikey said. His heart was beating fast. "No I'm sure! Guys, let's take him down!"

Soon, all the Purple Dragons, even the ones on the stands, headed towards Mikey. The guy who had earlier recognized the teenager ninja tried to attack Mikey but Mikey dodged him and tried to escape. But soon another person attacked. When Mikey dodged, a third person kicked him on the ground.

When Mikey was getting up, he saw a glimpse of Brian and the others. They were leaving. Brian saw Mikey looking at him, smiled and waved as a goodbye. Why would he do that? They weren't abandoning him, were they? Mikey tried to run after them but was stopped by a group of men.

"So Mikey was here?" Raph asked. "Yeah, he left here some of his clothes… And these…" April said and gave Raph Mikey's nunchakus. "That idiot…" Raph said squeezing Mikey's nunchakus. He took the shell cell out and called Don. "He isn't here. And is unarmed. And shirtless" Raph said when April gave him Mikey's shirt and mask.

"What? Okay me and Leo will help you to find Mikey… Call me if you find him" Don said. "Got it" Raph said. He put the shell cell back in his pocket. "Actually Mikey isn't shirtless, he's just wearing my clothes" April corrected. "What? Mikey's wearing chicks' clothes?" Raph asked astonished.

Raph was driving slowly trying to find Mikey. He saw a few teenagers getting closer. When he passed them he heard one of them saying: "Who would have known that Mike was actually an enemy of the Purple Dragon? Was it okay to leave him there alone?" Raph stopped his motorcycle.

"Well he wasn't really our friend"a black haired guy said."Hey, the guy you are talking about…Mike right? Did he have a light orange hair and freckles?" Raph shouted. The guys turned around. "Huh? Were you eavesdropping us?" a black haired guy said.

"Answer my question" Raph shouted and walked towards the guy. "Ask nicely then I might tell you…" Brian said grinning. Raph hit him and the guy fell on the ground. "Sorry my hand slipped" Raph said grinning and grabbed the guy's collar.

"Y-yeah… He had freckles and orange hair… Like you said… He was wearing sunglasses and so I couldn't see his face properly" Brian said. "So, where's Mikey now?" Raph asked. "In the Purple Dragon's underground battle arena… It's two blocks away from here…An abandoned paint warehouse, you should be able to find it if you just continue this road straight ahead" Brian stammered.

"Thanks" Raph said and let the guy go. Brian and the others quickly run away. Raph got on his motorcycle and called Don. "I know where Mikey is…" Raph said.

Mikey was fighting against the Purple Dragon. Mikey was able to stand against them but was getting tired and got hit more and more often.

Suddenly somebody hit him on the stomach. Mikey fell on his knees and other men started kicking him. "Somebody… Anybody… Just come to help me…" Mikey thought. Suddenly, Mikey could hear a loud voice and the Purple Dragon's screams following after that.

"It's one of them!" one Purple Dragon shouted. "Hey lizards, I believe you have something ours" Raph said. He saw Mikey on the floor and shouted: "Okay, that's it, you're all going down!" He attacked towards the men surrounding Mikey and Mikey was able to use this distraction to get up.

"Mikey, what the heck? You got ass-kicked by these losers?" Raph mocked. "Nah, I just thought I should save some of the fun for you too" Mikey said smirking. "Thanks bro" Raph said and knocked one guy against the stands.

Suddenly, an unexpected party joined in the fight. The Foot ninjas appeared. "More of those ninja guys? Let's take them down too!" a Purple Dragon shouted and clashed his sword against one ninja's shoulder. The sword broke in the pieces. "W-what?" the Purple Dragon shouted and attacked again. The ninja hit him on the ground.

"We're not interested about you guys…" the ninja said to the Purple Dragon's and started walking towards Mikey and Raph. "But you on the other hand… You'll be coming with us…" the foot ninja said. "I don't think so!" Raph said and threw a shuriken at the ninja. The ninja caught it on the air and threw it back. Raph dodged it.

"Raph… I think it would be best to escape" Mikey said. "That kind of coward action isn't my style…" Raph said. "But because I'm here to save you, I guess my first priority is get you out" Raph said. "Hey, I don't need to… Oh wait… Actually I did" Mikey said.

"Follow me!" Raph said to Mikey. He threw a smoke bomb and used it to secretly get on the stands. Raph broke a window and they jumped out. They run a little and Raph went to get his motorcycle. "I'm glad they didn't do anything to you baby" Raph said to his motorcycle.

Raph got on his motorcycle. "Okay, get on and hold on tight" Raph said to Mikey. Mikey did as he was told and Raph started the engine. The Foot ninjas had followed them outside. Raph accelerated quickly and Mikey almost fell off.

"Hey, be more careful!" Mikey screamed. "I told you to hold on tight" Raph said. The Foot was following the motorcycle…. On the foot. "Mikey, take my shell cell and call Don. It's on my right pocket" Raph said. "Dude, that's gay, I'm not going to…" Mikey started but Raph shouted: "JUST DO IT!"

Mikey had his left hand tightly around Raph and on his right hand he was taking a shell cell out of Raph's pocket. "Um, hey Don" Mikey said. "Mikey! You're okay!" Don shouted. "Tell them that we are being chased by the foot clan" Raph shouted.

"Oh yeah… The foot is after us" Mikey said. "What?" Don asked. "Yeah. There seems to be more of them than the last time… And at least one of them seems especially tough… He was hit by a sword but instead of getting hurt the sword broke in to pieces" Mikey said.

"Mikey, quit babbling and tell them to come to get us, I'm running out of the gasoline" Raph said.. "Raph said he's running out of gasoline and wants you to come pick us" Mikey said. "Okay, we're coming" Don answered.

"Mikey and Raph need our help…" Don said. He made few clicks on the navigator and soon a red spot appeared. "What's that?" Leo asked. "Oh, there's a tracking device on Raph's turtlebot…" Don said. "We're getting near to them..." he continued.

"That's the battle van!" Mikey shouted when he saw the van. The backdoor was opened and some kind of ramp appeared. Raph drove inside and the door was closed behind them. "That was close" Raph said looking at his gas meter.

The teenagers had finally reached their home. "Um, Mikey, about the earlier… I'm sorry" Don said. "Me too, maybe I was too rude… But sometimes we all need some time to be alone" Leo said. "It's okay. Besides I made some new friends!" Mikey said merrily.

Raph looked a little bit uneasy. "Mikey, about those friends of yours.. I don't think you should hang out with them anymore" Raph said. "Why not?" Mikey asked. "Well, I met them and they were talking about you… They didn't really like you" Raph said.

"What? What are you trying to say? That nobody wants to be friends with me? I'm just a bother to everyone? Is that what you're trying to say?!" Mikey shouted almost crying. "YES, YOU ARE A BOTHER!" Raph shouted. Mikey was shocked. "Raph, what are you…?" Leo asked but Raph shouted: "Let me finish!"

"You are an annoying brat with a special skill is to get himself and everybody around him in trouble! You break stuff, disturb and steal other people's food! But even though you are like that… I hate to admit it but… I like you as the way you are! If I truly hated you, I had never gone to find you in the first place!" Raph shouted.

Mikey was surprised. "Raph… That's…" Mikey started then dried up his tears on his sleeve. "That's so gay" Mickey mocked and smiled. "What? You're wearing girls' clothes and calling me gay?" Raph asked. "Girls'?" Don asked. "Yeah, I borrowed some clothes from April…" Mikey said.

"You're wearing April's clothes?" Don asked and blushed. "Yeah… Though I lost her sunglasses while fighting…" Mikey said. "Oh yeah, April gave me your clothes and weapons… " Raph said. "Where are they?" Mikey asked.

"In the garage… Inside my motorcycle, let's get them tomorrow, it's late already" Raph said. "We should return April's clothes tomorrow… " Don said. "Oh, we? I think only one person is enough for that job…" Raph said. "I was the one who borrowed them, I'll return them" Mikey said. For some reason, Don looked a little bit disappointed but kept his mouth shut.

"Oh yeah…. I'm starving…" Mikey complained. "Me too, let's eat" Raph said and walked in the kitchen. The others followed. They ate and went to bed. Mikey was about to fall asleep when his door opened. "Hey… Next time I'm meeting Casey, you can come too" Raph said.

"I wouldn't be a bother?" Mikey asked. "Nah, Casey is way more bother than you. Seriously" Raph said. "I thought you wanted to be alone with your boyfriend?" Mikey teased. "Okay, I'm starting to regret saving you" Raph said. "I love you too" Mikey said. "Okay that's it, good night jerk" Raph said and left.

Mikey was lying on a couch, playing a videogame. "Hey, I'm going to hang out with Casey, wanna come too?" Raph asked. "Nah, this new game is too addicting" Mikey said and added: "Besides, I don't want to get between you two" "Haha Mikey, really funny, that joke is getting old" Raph said.

After Raph had left, Leo came to Mikey. "Hey Mikey, want to practice together?" Leo asked."Nah I'm good" Mikey said focused on the videogame. "Okay, some other time then" Leo said. After a while, Don walked to Mikey and asked: "Hey Mikey, want to go to test my newest invention?"

"Geez, aren't I popular today" Mikey said. "Sorry, but I'll dedicate this whole day for this new Last Fairytale game" Mikey answered. "I guess I'll ask Leo then" Donatello said and left. Soon after Don had left Master Splinter came.

"Michelangelo…" Master Splinter started. "You want to spend time with me too?" Mikey asked. "Well, I don't mind doing that… Quit your game, my favorite program is starting soon" Master Splinter said. "Q-quit? B-but…" Mikey said. Splinter looked at Mikey and Mikey decided it was best to give up. He saved the game and run after Don and Leo shouting: "Guys! I'm coming after all! Guys! Wait!"


	6. Chapter 6: It's hard to be a leader

Chapter 6: It's hard to be a leader

The Purple Dragon's had been causing lot of trouble in April's neighborhood. The four teenagers promised to help her and they were waiting on the rooftops for the purple Dragon's to come out. They were working in pairs: Raph with Mikey and Leo with Don. They all were wearing headsets to communicate each other.

"Aw c'mon, we've been waiting over two hours now… They won't come…" Mikey complained. "We can't go home now, we promised to help April…" Don replied. "No, you promised to help her. She didn't even ask us to do this you know…." Mikey said. "Mikey, I told you to call only if you see the Purple Dragons" Leo noted.

"But I'm so bored… Raph won't talk with me. He told that if I come closer than ten feet he'll kill me" Mikey said. "Okay, what did you do Mikey?" Don asked. "Umm… Nothing…" Mikey lied. "Nothing?" Don asked suspiciously.

"Um… There might have been a spider on him… Which I accidentally dropped on him…" Mikey said. Leo sighed. "Mikey, you know that Raph's scared of insects…" Leo replied. "I'M NOT!" Raph shouted. "Actually, spiders aren't even insects they…" Don started his explanation but was interrupted by Mikey saying: "Insects or not, Raph's still scared of them"

Raph got up. "OKAY, THAT'S IT MIKEY, THIS ROOF IS TOO SMALL FOR THE TWO OF US, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Raph shouted and charged at Mikey. "Raph! Calm down!" Leo shouted on his microphone. "Hey guys…I spotted the Purple Dragons… They're trying to rob a jeweler shop, let's go" Don said.

"Let's get done with this quickly so I can beat Mickey up" Raph said letting go of Mikey. They headed towards the jewelers. Don and Leo were already fighting with the Purple Dragons when Raph and Mikey joined them.

"There are twelve of them. We need to capture them all and call the police to get them" Leo ordered. "Yeah yeah, I'll knock them out, somebody else can do the tying up" Raph said. "And don't let any of them to get away, understand?" Leo stated.

Only in a few minutes Raph had knocked down almost half of them. "Show off" Mikey teased. "You're just jealous because I'm better fighter than you" Raph said proudly. "At least I'm not afraid of bugs" Mikey mocked.

"I'M NOT SCARED OF THEM! I JUST HATE THEM!" Raph shouted. "Really? By the way Raphie, there's a spider on you!" Mikey shouted. "I'm not gonna fall for that" Raph answered with a self-confident smile on his face. "Quit it you two!" Leo shouted trying to deal with the Purple Dragons. "Okay, you don't have to believe me but… There really is a spider on your right shoulder" Mikey said.

Raph turned pale and slowly took a look on his shoulder, just to find out that Mikey was lying after all. He instinctively gave a relived sigh. "See, you were scared!" Mikey teased. "You…You're so dead!" Raph shouted and tried to hit Mikey on face.

"Stop it Raph!" Leo shouted jumping between Raph and Mikey. Raph ended up accidentally hitting Leo instead of Mikey. Leo fell on his knees, holding his hand on his face. "Uh, sorry Leo, I wasn't going to hit you…" Raph said.

The Purple Dragons took advantage of the situation and tried to escape. "The Purple Dragons are getting away!" Don shouted. "Oh no you won't…" Raph said and was chasing after the ones trying to run away. Soon they heard the sound of Police siren.

"Abort the mission! The cops are coming!" Leo shouted still covering the left side of his face with his hand. The teenagers fled through a manhole and returned home.

"Here" Don said and offered an ice-bag for Leo. Leo held it against his left eye. "Nice going Raph…" Don scolded Raph. "Hey, it was his own fault to come between me and Mikey" Raph said. "That's not what I meant! Just what the heck were you thinking? You were fighting with Mikey and just let those guys get away!"

"Mikey was asking for it!" Raph shouted furiously. "I just got bored…" Mikey tried to explain. "And did what? Tried purposely to make Raph angry?" Don said. "Well, none of this would have happened if Leo here hadn't ordered me to go with Mikey!" Raph shouted.

"SILENCE!" Splinter shouted entering in the room. The boys shut their mouths. "What happened?" Splinter asked. "We… Our mission failed. The Purple Dragons ran away" Leo said. "And why it happened?" Splinter continued.

"Well because Raph…" Mikey started but Raph shouted over him: "It was your own fault!" "It was my fault Master Splinter" Leo said continuing: "It seems like I'm not cut out to be a leader after all". "Well, got that one right" Raph said. "Raph!" Don yelled.

"My sons…. I think you all are just tired. Maybe a good rest will clear up your heads" Splinter said. "Hai sensei" all the boys said and headed towards their room. All, except Leo. "Is there something you want to talk about?" Splinter asked. "I… No, you're right, I just need some rest" Leo said and got up.

But when Leo lied on his bed, he couldn't fall asleep. "I couldn't make Raph snap out of it… He hardly even listens what I say… How I'm supposed to lead when nobody really listens what I say?" Leo thought. "Maybe Raph is right. Maybe I was never supposed to be a leader" Leo said staring at the ceiling.

Leo was recalling a day three years ago. Master Splinter was testing their skills, each four of them separately. When they all had finished their tests, Master Splinter called them in his room.

"Until now, I have trained you to four fight as individuals. But after seeing your progress going smoothly, I decided that from now on, I'll train you to fight as a team. And all teams need a leader" Splinter told. "Can I be the leader?" Mikey asked. "You? No way man! I'm the strongest so I should be the leader!" Raph shouted.

"I'll be the one choosing the leader. A year from now, on this very same day, I'll be declaring the one to be your leader" Splinter said. "Sensei, what does it take to be a good leader?" Leo asked. "There isn't a simple answer for that. Let's see… A good leader is someone who knows, not only his own strengths and weaknesses, but also the ones of his teammates' and is able to utilize them" Splinter said.

"A good leader should also be able to keep his calm in all situations. He won't leave the weak behind and puts the needs of the others over his own needs. However, those are just a few things about an ideal leader. There are many ways to become a good leader" Splinter told.

After they had been dismissed Mikey said: "I guess Raph doesn't have any chances" "What?!" Raph shouted. "You heard Splinter: "a good leader should stay calm no matter what ". You won't be able to do that" Mikey stated. "I…I can!" Raph shouted. "No you can't!" Mikey teased.

"Well you can't be the leader either. You're way too stupid and weak" Raph said. "I'll become stronger!" Mikey shouted. "I think you would make a good leader Leo" Don said. "Me?" Leo asked. "Well, you're the eldest after all" Don said.

"Leo? No way! He might be older but he hasn't won me in a battle, not even once!" Raph yelled. "I think Leo would be way better leader than you" Mikey said but added: "Though I still think I should be the leader". "It's true that I'm not the strongest or the smartest one of us…" Leo said continuing: "Maybe you should be the leader Don. You're the smartest one of us after all and could come up with good plans"

"I don't really want to be a leader" Don said and looked at Mikey and Raph's direction most likely thinking: "At least, not for these guys". "Besides, I don't think that you should be the strongest or smartest one to be a leader. You always look after us and I think it's more important than strength or knowledge" Don continued.

"Hmph, well I don't need Leo to look after me" Raph said self-confidently. "Wasn't Leo the one to look after you when you were sick?" Don asked. " I didn't ask him to do it!" Raph shouted. "That's my point! Leo takes care of us even though nobody has asked him to do that" Don said.

"Back then too… I wasn't able to say anything even though they were fighting about me…" the present Leo thought. "A good leader should be able to solve the conflicts inside the team but sometimes I feel like I can't even get my mouth open" Leo thought.

Leonardo wasn't able to get any sleep. Next morning when he didn't show in the breakfast table, Don got worried. He went to Leo's room. Leo was lying on the bed facing the wall. "Leo are you okay?" Don asked. "I… I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well. I think I'll stay in bed for today…" Leo replied tiredly.

"Oh… Okay, try to get better" Don said and added: "If you need anything, just ask" "Okay" Leo answered. After Don had closed the door, Leo turned on his back and stared at the ceiling. "I feel bad for lying to him but I'm not really in the mood to see the others…" Leo thought.

"Leo is sick?" Mikey asked. "Well he said he wasn't feeling well" Don replied but seemed doubtful. "Sick? I won't buy it. He must be moping because of the last night" Raph said. "I… I think either case, we should just let him be for a while" Don told.

"So are we going to let the Purple Dragons just be?" Mikey asked. "No, we already promised April to take care of them… We're going there tonight, with or without Leo" Don said. "I like that…" Raph commented. "But we need still a leader right?" Mikey asked enthusiastically.

"Well… Yeah…" Don said. "I'm the eldest one of the three of us" Raph said quickly. "Hey, no fair" Mikey complained. "How about we take turns? Let's draw lots to decide who will go first" Don suggested. "Fine with me" Raph answered.

"Um so, when the leader time is up?" Mikey asked. "Let's see… When the leader screws up" Raph stated. "What? That's cruel… If you get to be the last one, you might even get a turn to lead" Mikey said. "Actually… It could work pretty well… There is no need to change a good leader, right?" Don noted.

They drew lots. Mikey got the first turn to lead. After him was Don's turn and Raph was the last one to be the leader. "Heh, too bad guys, you won't get a chance to lead" Mikey said. "Shut up Mikey or your leadership will end before we can even get started…" Raph snarled.

Mikey, Don and Raph practiced with Splinter until it got dark. Then, they headed out to catch the Purple Dragons. After Leo's brothers were gone, Leo finally got out his room. He went to the kitchen. While he was sitting at the table eating his meal, Splinter came in.

"You missed the practice" Splinter noted. "I'm sorry Master…" Leo said. "Donatello told me that you weren't feeling well" Splinter said looking at his son. Leo avoided Splinter's eyes and said: "That's… I lied … Kind of at least…. I just… Needed to be alone".

"I understand. So, do you want to tell me now what you were going to say last night?" Splinter asked. Leo used a while to think what he should say. "I… Sometimes I feel like I get no respect even though I'm supposed to be the leader… The others, especially Raph, keep doing things against my orders and causing situations like yesterday's" Leo answered.

"You can't force the others to respect you. Respect is something that needs to be gained through your own actions… " Splinter said. "But how can I get them to obey me if they don't respect me?" Leo asked. "Well there are other methods to get your point through but I didn't raise you to use those methods… " Splinter said.

"I…How I should get them to listen to me?" Leo asked. Splinter smirked. "Never tried talking to them?" Splinter said. "Like I said, they don't listen to me…" Leo insisted. "Is that really the case?" Splinter asked. Leo remained silent for while.

"Not… Always… Sometimes when they start fighting, I can't get myself said the things I need to say…" Leo said. Splinter sighed, smiling a little. "Leonardo… You lack self-confidence" Splinter said. "Hai, sensei…" Leo said gloomily.

"On the battlefield, you must not let your uncertainty to be seen. If you don't trust your own words, the others won't trust them either" Splinter said. "I understand, Sensei" Leo replied and bowed down. "But when you're not fighting, then it's completely a different story…" Splinter said and smiled.

"Sensei… Why did you choose me to be the leader?" Leo asked. "I think it was natural choice… The others have always depended on you" Splinter said and added: "Even Raph, who hates to admit it"

"So Mikey, what's our plan?" Raph asked. "It's "Leader"" Mikey stated proudly. "Mikey seriously, do you want to be punched?" Raph asked rising his fist. "Calm down Raph" Don said and softly pushed Raph's hand down.

"Um let's see… We go there, find the Purple Dragons and…" Mikey said. "And…?" Raph asked. "Umm… We beat them!" Mikey continued. "That's your plan?" Don asked. "I like it" Raph said grinning. "So, how are we going to find the Purple Dragons?" Don asked.

"That's easy!" Mikey answered and started shouting: "Purple Dragons stink! My grandma fights better than you slimy lizards!" "He… Can't be serious…" Don said. "Hey, it's Mikey we're talking about… " Raph replied."But do you seriously think that the Purple Dragons will fall for this? They can't be that stupid" Don asked.

Soon, some Purple Dragons started appearing. "Seems like they are" Raph answered. "Is it only me or…Is there more of them than before?" Don asked looking around. "The guys from yesterday brought their little friends with them" Raph said rolling his sais.

"Okay, let's fight!" Raph shouted and attacked on the Dragons. "Wait Raph! You need to wait for my orders!" Mikey yelled. "Well, hurry then!" Raph shouted. "Okay troops, attack! Formation B!" Mikey declared.

"Wait, what?" Don asked. "Just attack them!" Raph shouted and knocked one guy down. "Okay, I can do that" Don said and attacked on the Purple Dragons. At first, it seemed like everything was going well but then some Purple Dragon pulled out a gun and shoot at Don. Luckily, the bullet missed.

"This doesn't look good" Mikey said."Let's retreat!" Mikey shouted. They ran away but the Purple Dragons had no intention to let them escape and followed the boys. The teenagers reached an old factory and hid inside it. "Okay Mikey, I think this was counted as a failure, I'll lead now" Don stated.

"So what's your plan, oh the mighty leader Don?" Mikey asked. "How about a trap?" Don said. "After building it, we need to lure the Purple Dragons in it, then capture them and call the police" Don explained.

"Is it okay for you to stay here?" Splinter asked. "What do you mean?" Leo wondered. "Your brothers are out there, fighting against the enemy, right?" Splinter said. "They… They'll be fine without me" Leo replied. "They might do fine even without you, but is that really reason not to go?" Splinter asked.

"Mikey, you lure them inside the factory, Raph, after they are all in you close the doors and I start the machine that'll release the sleeping gas. Oh, and don't breathe the gas yourselves" Don said. "Why do I have to be the bait?" Mikey complained. "Because you're the fastest runner among us" Don told.

"And you're the most annoying one, the Purple Dragons will surely come after you" Raph added. "Gee, thanks" Mikey replied and ran out. Raph hid above the door and Don waited near the machine containing the sleeping gas. He had made out of the chemicals that he found inside the factory.

"So… Should I call them out again?" Mikey pondered while wandering around the streets. "No need to" he heard a voice behind him saying. Mikey turned around and saw bunch of mean looking guys behind him. "Yikes… Um… Never mind, just… Bye guys!" Mikey said and run away. The men followed him.

But when Mikey went inside the factory, the men stopped. "It's a trap" one of the Purple Dragons stated. "Umm… Donnie, I think they're not falling for it" Mikey shouted. "Luckily, have a plan B" Raph said and jumped behind the Purple Dragons.

"If they don't go in voluntarily, we will force them!" Raph shouted and kicked few guys inside. "Raph! You ruined the plan!" Don yelled. "Well, it wasn't working well anyways!" Raph answered.

The Purple Dragons had no intention to fall in their trap and avoided getting inside the factory. "Wait… If those guys don't want to go in shouldn't we go there instead?" Mikey asked. "Tell me, just exactly how does that help us to catch these guys?" Raph asked while throwing a guy against a wall.

They heard a gunshot. Mikey cried and fell. "Mikey?!" Raph shouted and run to Mikey. Mikey's leg was bleeding. "Damn, change of plans, let's get inside after all" Raph ordered and grabbed Mikey. They escaped in the factory.

"It hurts…" Mikey complained. "No good… I can't remove the bullet here… We need to retreat" Don said. "What, again?" Raph shouted. "If you didn't notice, Mikey is hurt, we need to get him out here" Don answered.

"Well I don't think those guys will just quietly let us pass them" Raph noted. "There might be an underground passage leading out of this building…" Don said. "How about that car of yours?" Raph asked. "Oh yeah! I'll just call it over!" Don said and took out his shell cell. He clicked the button for calling the battle van.

"It'll take about fifteen minutes for it to find us" Don told. "Do you guys… Smell smoke?" Raph asked. "What? Shit! They're trying to fumigate us" Don shouted. "We need to get out here. Now!" Raph commanded. "But how?" Don asked.

"There must be other ways out…" Raph replied. "Undoubtedly, but I bet those guys are watching all the entrances" Don said. "Let's use a window" Raph stated. "Well, you and I would be fine with that but how about Mikey?" Don asked.

"Urgh… I'll go down first and get those guys after me so you can help Mikey to get away. Call me when you're safe" Raph said. "Don't be reckless. They have guns" Don noted."I got guts" Raph replied. "Bullets can pierce through them you know?" Don said.

"Guys… We don't really have time for this" Mikey said pointing at the door that was on fire. "Okay, I'll go now" Raph said and jumped out of a window. There were men waiting for him but Raph was able to beat them. None of those guys had guns.

"There's one over here!" one of the Purple Dragons shouted. "Oh… I should lure them after me" Raph thought and run behind the corner. Behind the corner, there was more Purple Dragons waiting. "Hey uglies" Raph greeted them. "So, you ditched your friends kid?" one Purple Dragon mocked.

"Not really" Raph answered. "Or are you trying to sacrifice yourself so they could escape?" the Purple Dragon laughed. "No, I'm going to kick your ass, call it mission accomplished and go home" Raph replied smirking and attacked on the guy.

Few of them were carrying guns and tried to shoot Raph but he was able to dodge the bullets. Raph was able to knock out few guys but their fight was irrupted by an explosion. Raph was thrown through the air and landed crashing on the ground.

He looked around and saw the factory on pieces. "No… Mikey… Don… They…" Raph stammered and tried to get up, but his body was paralyzed by the pain caused by a sudden crash. "Damn, move already…" he swore trying to force his body to move. When he was finally able to move, it was too late.

Some of the Purple Dragons were hiding further away from the building and were not caught on the explosion. Those men had surrounded Raph. One of them step on Raph, pushing him down, the face against the ground, "Take that punk" the Purple Dragon laughed.

"I won't let it end like this" Raph thought and tried to sweep the Purple Dragon's feet under him but he wasn't able to move at all. "Okay, do you prefer to die slowly or fast?" the Purple Dragon asked. "Suck my…!" Raph shouted and the Purple Dragon pressed his foot against his head.

"I think we'll do this slowly so you can have more time to regret that pitiful and short life of yours…" the Purple Dragon laughed. Raph couldn't help breathing the dirt in. If the ground were any harder, he would have already broken his nose. But the soft ground wasn't that much better because it was pretty hard to breathe. The Purple Dragons were laughing around Raph.

Suddenly, the laughter stopped. Raph could hear sounds of fighting. The weight on his head disappeared and Raph was able to get up, though his vision was a little bit hazy. "Let's go" familiar voice said and dragged Raph with him.

"Leo…"Raph said when he was able to recognize the boy who had saved him. "The others… They… " Raph faltered. "They're safe… We need to get out here before cops come" Leo said. The battle van was waiting for them at the factory's entrance.

They got in and escaped. "Yet another mission failed" Raph complained continuing: "Those guys weren't supposed to be so tough…" "It's not like they are any tougher than usual. It's just that we have become weaker…" Leo said.

"What? You…" Raph shouted angrily and tried to grab Leo's neck but Leo took Raph's wrist and said determinedly: "Our teamwork is crumbling". Raph opened his mouth to answer something but closed it and looked away. "The reason why we keep losing to the Purple Dragon's is because they have fought as a team while we haven't" Leo said.

"But we do fight as a team" Raph claimed. "No, we just fight against the same enemy but everybody keeps doing things on their own" Leo said. "You need to take these fights more seriously. It doesn't matter if you're bored or annoyed, you still should pay attention on the enemy. If we keep fighting against each other instead of the enemy, it's only natural us to lose…" Leo stated.

"It's… No… It's as you said… I'm sorry…" Raph apologized. "Guys… I feel horrible…" Mikey complained. "Hang on just a little bit longer, we're almost there…" Don said. When they got home, Don removed the bullet on Mikey's leg and stitched the wound closed.

They put the television on and on the news they were telling about the explosion of the old factory. "It seems like the explosion was caused by a street gang called the Purple Dragons. The details aren't clear but it seems like the Purple Dragon was fighting against some unknown gang. Police was able to catch many Purple Dragons, most of them were lying on the ground unconscious. Also, it seems like there has been many robberies on the area lately so the police decided to increase their surveillance here" the news anchor told.

"It seems like everything turned out well after all" Don said relived. "Well? Well Donnie, if you didn't notice yet, there's a hole in my leg!" Mikey shouted. "There's one between your ears too" Raph commented sarcastically. "Without Leo, we might have been dead by now" Don said.

"Well, he really took his time though" Raph noted. "Yeah, I'm sorry for that. I just needed some time to think" Leo replied smiling. "I'm glad it didn't take much longer for you to clear up your head because I was this close to lose mine" Raph said making a small gap between his thumb and forefinger.

"I'm glad you're all okay" Master Splinter said entering the room. "Okay? My…" Mikey started but was interrupted by their Sensei saying: "and thus, you're grounded for two weeks" "What? We just…" Don said. "You promised to Miss O'Neil to take care of the Purple Dragons without asking anything from me first. Don't do something as stupid ever again. True warrior does not seek for a fight" Splinter stated.

"What? You think we should have just let them be?" Don asked. "Yes and no. Once you promise something, you should try to keep your promise. But don't go promise things that thoughtlessly" Splinter said. "Hai sensei…" Don answered. "But don't worry, I can promise that you definitely won't get bored during these two weeks. We'll have some intensive practicing starting tomorrow" Splinter told.

"Too bad for you guys" Mikey said grinning. "I don't remember telling you that I'll let you slip out of this one" Master Splinter noted. "What? But…But my leg…" Mikey started. "If you can't train your body, you still can train your mind, am I right?" Master Splinter asked. "Yes Sensei…" Mikey answered meekly.

"You know… I think Master Splinter didn't ground us just because going against the Purple Dragons without his permission…" Don said. All the teenagers, except Mikey, were sitting on the table, eating. "What? Are you going to give me some teamwork crap again?" Raph asked. "No. I think Splinter doesn't want us to leave our home for a while because there might be some Purple Dragons trying to get revenge on us" Don explained.

"Well why should that matter? If they attack on us we just…" Raph started but Leo interrupted him saying: "It might not be only the Purple Dragons. The Foot is after us as well and if we keep doing flashy stuff like this, we might get ourselves in real trouble…"

"That's a coward's talk" Raph said. "Anyways, let's be more cautious from now on" Leo told. "Yeah, I have a feeling that the worst is yet to come" Don said.


	7. Chapter 7: Follow the Master!

Chapter 7: Follow the Master!

It had been a week since Mikey was shot in the foot and the wound was already almost healed. "It's weird. Usually it would take much longer for these kinds of wounds to heal" Don said removing the stitches. "Well, I'm just awesome" Mikey bragged. "Oh" Raph replied a mean look on his face.

"Don't even think about it!" Mikey yelled protecting his leg so Raph couldn't poke the wound. Don sighed. "Master Splinter, are you going out?" Leo asked. The others looked at the door, where their Master was standing, his hand on the door handle. "Yes, I have some matters to take care of" Master Splinter answered and opened the door.

"You know… I've always wondered… How Master Splinter gets the food we eat? Or these clothes? Or… Well, everything we have?" Don asked. "You don't think he's… Stealing stuff?" Raph said. "Of course not! Master Splinter would never steal! " Leo shouted.

"Hey let's find out, he can't be that far away yet!" Mikey suggested. "Mikey, we're grounded" Leo noted. "C'mon Leo, there won't be another chance anytime soon" Raph said. "Yeah, aren't you curious as well?" Mikey asked. "Well, if we're going, we should go fast, before he gets too far" Don said.

"Besides, the worst thing that can happen if he catches us is to get grounded again. And after living fifteen years underground, few more weeks won't be so bad" Raph said. "And Leo, nobody is forcing you to come with us you know" Raph added.

"Okay, fine, let's go…" Leo sighed. They quietly sneaked on the sewers. "You know… I have a feeling that we had tried this before…" Don said. "Many times before actually" Raph replied. "And none of them ended well…" Leo added.

Eight years ago, they had decided to follow Master Splinter when he left the lair. "Did you see where he went?" Mikey asked. "Umm… I think it was this way" Raph replied pointing out a route. "Are you sure?" Don asked. "Yeah, I'm sure, let's go!" Raph said and tried to run off.

"Hey, get back, we're supposed to stay home!" Leo shouted and tried to catch Raph and the others. "I'm not listening to you" Raph shouting. "Yeah, not listening to you!" Mikey repeated following Raph. "Quit copying me Mikey!" Raph yelled. "I'm not copying you" Mikey insisted.

They followed the passage and reached a dead end. "I think master Splinter didn't come this way" Don said. "I-I know that…" Raph uttered and turned back. "Let's go home" Leo commanded. "Not yet, I just had one wrong turn" Raph stated choosing another route.

After wandering in the sewers for a while Mikey started to complain: "This is boring I want to go to watch TV instead". "Hey Raph, do you really know that where we are going?" Don asked. "Of course!" Raph replied but he wasn't really even sure himself.

"This place doesn't seem familiar at all…" Leo said. "I want to go home" Mikey whined. . "Me too" Don said quietly. "Traitors" Raph hissed "It's three against one" Leo said looking at Raph with a stern look on his face.

"Okay, fine then…" Raph snarled. "Let's go home" Leo declared determined. The others followed Leo but after wandering over an hour they still didn't know where they were. "We're lost" Mikey panicked. "It's Leo's fault" Raph blamed. "My fault? If you had stayed home, we wouldn't be lost" Leo nagged. "SO WE ARE LOST!" Mikey cried out.

"It's going to be okay Mikey" Leo reassured Mikey. "I don't want to walk even a step anymore!" Mikey declared and sat down on the ground. "Maybe we should stay here. When Sensei realizes that we're gone, he'll definitely come to find us" Leo said.

"No way! Let's continue walking!" Raph insisted. "No, we're staying here" Leo ordered. "Fine, you guys can stay here, I'll go alone!" Raph yelled and run away. "Raph come back!" Leo shouted trying to chase after Raph. But when the boy disappeared behind the corner, Leo gave up and returned to Mikey and Don.

In the present day, the four teenagers quietly followed Master Splinter as he went on the surface. "He's heading towards the junkyard" Leo whispered. "I hope that's not where he gets our food" Mikey said.

They could see Splinter talking with few homeless men. After a short chat, Splinter left, still empty handed. The teenagers followed him from the shadows.

"I'm hungry, let's go home" the six-year-old Mikey complained. "No, it's best to stay in one place. Master Splinter will surely come for us any time soon" Leo calmed him. "I wonder if Raph found a way back home…" Don said.

Suddenly, they could hear a scream. "That was Raph" Leo shouted and quickly got up. All three of them ran towards the place where they had heard the screaming coming from. Raph was running away from something and rushed in Leo.

"Raph what happened?" Leo asked worriedly. "A-a spider…" Raph stammered. After a short silence Mikey and Don burst in to laughter. Leo tried his best to stay deadpan. "Not funny, it bit me!" Raph yelled. "And you bravely ran away screaming like a little girl" Mikey scoffed.

"I'll make you scream like the little girl you are" Raph snarled trying to hit Mikey. "Show me the bite" Leo told having his hands around Raph's waist so Raph wouldn't jump on Mikey. "Let me go! I need to kill Mikey!" Raph shouted trying to shove Leo off.

"No I'm serious, where it bit you?" Leo inquired. "In the neck" Raph said showing the biting mark. "What did the spider look like?" Don asked. "Ugly?" Raph replied. "Like you" Mikey added. "That doesn't help much, can you be more specific? Was it big or small? What color was it?" Don asked.

"I just remember it being a disgusting, ugly spider…" Raph uttered. "Well if Raph dies, we can at least assume that the spider was poisonous" Mikey teased. "If I bite you, you'll get poisoned and then you'll die too" Raph growled. "It doesn't work that way" Don stated.

Splinter was walking across the street when he noticed an old woman getting almost ran over by a car. Quickly, he rushed to save the woman.

"You don't think he goes around saving people and getting stuff for return?" Mikey asked. "No, an honorable person like Sensei wouldn't do something like that. He doesn't help people to get something in return" Leo answered. "See, he's clearly refusing to take any kind of reward" Leo said pointing at Master Splinter.

Their sensei was indeed shaking his head after the woman had said something. Splinter said goodbye to the old woman and continued forward.

The kids were sitting still, waiting for their Master to find them. Raph seemed to be in pain. His face had turned pale. "Does it hurt?" Leo asked. "N-no…" Raph lied trying to act tough. "So it won't hurt if I do this?" Mikey asked poking the spider bite. Raph was startled by the sudden pain. He took Mikey's hand and bit it.

"No! Don't infect the poison on me!" Mikey shouted. "Raph stop!" Leo yelled and tried to come between them. "Mikey the spider's poison won't infect you if Raph bites you" Don tried to correct Mikey. "But I'll get infected by Raphie germs! It's even worse !" Mikey shouted. "Shh… Somebody is coming, let's hide" Leo hushed.

Next, their master dropped in the lost and found. "Maybe he earns money by returning the lost property he had found on the sewers" Mikey said. "I don't think so, if you want a reward, you need to leave your information to them so they can contact you after the lost item is returned to their rightful owner …" Don noted.

"He's on the move again" Leo informed. Master Splinter continued his journey and… Went in a grocery store. "He already had the money…" Mikey said disappointed. "So this whole trip was in vain?" Raph asked. "I wouldn't say it has been a completely futile" Leo answered.

All four boys were hiding close to each other. They could see a figure coming closer them. "My sons, are you here?" Splinter called. "Master Splinter!" the boys shouted and run to their master. Splinter hugged then saying: "I'm so glad that you all are okay". Then he hit then all with his walking stick continuing: "And mad for not doing what you were told. You were supposed to stay home."

"We're sorry" Leo apologized bowing down. "No television for you for a week" Splinter declared. "No! Anything but that!" Mikey whined. "You should think about it next time you go wandering on your own" Splinter scolded. "It was Raph's idea!" Mikey blamed.

Raph didn't say anything back. He just quietly stood a blank expression on his face. Splinter looked at the boy and noticed the spider bite. "Raphael, what's this?" Splinter asked. "Oh yeah, a spider bit him" Leo replied in Raph's stead.

"Raphael? Are you okay?" Splinter asked squatting down so he would be able to look the boy more carefully. "Yeah…" Raph answered feebly. Splinter sighed. He lifted Raph on his arms and they headed back home.

When Splinter left the store, he didn't head straight back home. He headed back the junkyard where homeless guys were waiting for him. Splinter gave them some of the food and the homeless guys gave him a box filled with different stuff. Splinter thanked them and left. He headed towards a manhole and went in.

"Umm… Guys… Have you thought how we are going to get home BEFORE Master Splinter?" Don asked. "Shit…" Raph cursed. "Is there any other ways inside than through the front door?" Leo asked. "The water in the pool at our lair comes from the river but taking that route would take even longer… Let's just try to get at the front door before Sensei" Don said.

"Is Raph okay?" Don asked. "The spider that bit him was poisonous but he should be okay in few days. It's nothing serious. Painful maybe but not anything severe" Master Splinter replied. "Are Raph bites poisonous too?" Mikey asked worriedly.

"Raph bites…?" Sensei asked. "Yeah, look! Raph bit me! See?" Mikey said showing the teeth marks on his hand. "I'm pretty sure that Raph isn't poisonous" Master Splinter laughed. "But if he was poisoned and he bit me shouldn't I get poisoned too?" Mikey asked. "Mikey I already told you that it doesn't work that way" Don sighed. "It does on the comic books" Mikey insisted. "Don't mix comics and reality together" Don replied.

The four teenagers entered in the sewers and tried stealthy get ahead their sensei, even though none of them believed that they could actually succeed. When they got home, they didn't find Master Splinter there and assumed that he wasn't home yet. "We made it!" Mikey rejoiced. "That's funny… He must have taken a longer route" Don pondered.

"Okay, whatever, I'm starving…" Raph said heading towards the kitchen. He opened the fridge, took out milk and some leftover food from yesterday then closed the fridge. While pouring the milk on a glass he suddenly realized something and quickly re-opened the fridge's door.

"Um… Guys… I think we were too late after all" Raph shouted. "What makes you think so Raphie-boy?" Mikey asked. "Fresh milk, eggs and the other stuff we were running out this morning" Raph replied. "So, you boys care to explain me why you followed me on the surface?" Splinter asked coming out from his hideout.

"Ah…We…" Mikey started. "We were just wondering where you get your money" Leo said. "And instead of simply asking it, you decided to follow me even though you were grounded?" Splinter inquired. "So how do you get the money?" Mikey asked.

"Lot of things that people drop on the streets end up in the sewers" Master Splinter said and added: "But I did have my savings with me when I escaped from that research center" "That really might be enough for the food… And the other stuff here, I bet they are something that were found in the sewers and junkyards?" Donatello concluded.

"Yes, that's correct my son" Splinter said continuing: "people throw away a lot of useful goods". "The junkyard… The homeless people exchanged items for food" Don said. "Not quite. Those people are my friends and we have been helping each other" Splinter answered.

"So…Did they give you any comic books by a chance…?" Mikey asked. Splinter smirked. "They did! Show me!" Mikey begged. "Before reading comics, isn't there something else you should do first?" Splinter asked. "Huh, something else? Nah, I'm totally free?" Mikey wondered. "Something like the training you were supposed to be doing this whole time?" Splinter asked.

"Oh that… " Mikey replied. "And it seems like two weeks isn't enough for our intensive practicing period" Splinter added. "What? But… We… But…" Mikey stammered. "You knew this was coming Mikey" Raph said. "Hey! It's all your fault!" Mikey blamed.

"If I remember right, the one who suggested following Master Splinter was you" Raph stated. "Well you were the one who …" Mikey started and Raph finished him saying: "… don't give a crap if we're grounded or not" "Yes, that's… Wait…No…" Mikey said and tried to came up with something.

"Sorry Mikey, you can't escape from this one" Leo laughed tapping Mikey on the back. "But I'm still getting the comics after the practicing. Right Sensei? Right?" Mikey inquired. "Let's see how well you perform during the practice…" Splinter smirked.

Mikey stared at the others sternly. "You heard what the sensei said, let's practice!" Mikey ordered. "I've never seen Mikey being this eager to practice before" Leo said. "You could say he's fighting for something he loves" Don laughed. "And do guys know what I love?" Raph asked smiling, cracking his knuckles. "Knocking Mikey back down to earth" he answered following Mikey.


	8. Chapter 8: The Shredder

Chapter 8: The Shredder

"Finally ungrounded!" Mikey shouted joyfully, running on the rooftops. "Well, if we haven't…" Don started but Raph interrupted him saying: "Past is past, we're free now and that's all that matters to me'" "Let's just try not to do anything that will get us grounded again" Leo said. "Or just let's try not be caught of that" Raph added.

When they were running, Leo spotted something on the streets. Leo gave others sign to stop and moved closer to the edge to spy the foot ninjas sneaking down on the alley. "It seems like they're searching something" Don whispered. "Or someone…" Raph said.

"You don't think they're trying to find us?" Mikey asked. "That's stupid, why would they be after us?" Raph asked. "Um, because we stole that sword from them?" Mikey said. "Oh yeah, we did do that…." Raph laughed.

"Guys, be quiet…" Leo hissed. It seemed that the foot ninjas didn't find what they were searching for and started to leave. The teenagers followed them secretly. The foot ninjas continued their search without noticing the four teenagers spying them.

"Why are we following them again?" Mikey asked. "It's good to know your enemy" Leo replied. "Well, I know that they want to get our insides out, isn't that enough?" Mikey asked. "Mikey, shut up" Raph snarled. Suddenly they could hear a signal voice.

"Shit" Don swore and clicked a button to make his shell cell quiet. "What was that?" Leo asked looking disapproving. "Somebody found the garage and is trying to break in" Don replied. "The foot?" Raph asked. "Most likely" Don answered.

"Let's go there" Don said looking at Leo pleadingly. "I'm not sure if it's safe…" Leo said. "It's not. For them if they dare to touch my bike, that is" Raph said. "The thing I'm more worried about is that if they can get inside the battle van... They will be able to track down our shell cells" Don said.

"Let's just ditch the phones" Raph replied straight away. "No! Let's first make sure if they have gotten in!" Don shouted. "Okay let's go before those guys see us" Leo said looking at the Foot ninjas still searching the area.

They headed to the garage. Luckily, the foot ninja hadn't been able to get inside yet. But they sure were trying hard and it would be only a matter of time before they got in.

"What should we do? Attack them?" Raph asked taking his sais out. "We're not sure if they have called reinforces yet…" Leo said. "Well, let's not wait them to" Raph said and sneaked closer the foot ninjas. Leo sighed and beckoned the others to follow.

The foot ninjas had decided to try to explode the door to get in. A ninja was setting up a bomb. "If I were you, I wouldn't do that" Raph said standing next to the guy. The foot ninjas noticed Raph and immediately attacked him. There were only three of them so Raph was able to handle all of them himself.

"See, problem solved" Raph said looking towards the direction where the others were hiding. Don sighed and went open the garage's door. After getting inside he headed in the battle van. "We need to move the battle van in safer place" Don insisted. "It's not safe, the Foot will surely recognize it and go after us" Leo stated.

"But I don't want it to be destroyed…" Don said. "It has an autopilot, doesn't it?" Leo asked. "Yeah but it requires the navigator. And If I don't take it off if the Foot get's in the van they might be able to track down the places where we are, have been and will be…"Don replied.

"Can't I just drive it someplace safer and take the navigator off after that? Please Leo…" Don begged. "I said it too dangerous right now. You just have to take the navigator off and leave the battle van here" Leo said. "Leo, we don't know if they'll follow it… " Raph said.

"And it has all those kickass weapons so we'll be much safer inside the van than not in there" Mikey added. "I can go alone" Don suggested. "That's way too dangerous, I won't let you go alone" Leo said. "I'll follow him with my bike" Raph stated.

"Fine… But if you run in to trouble call us" Leo ordered. "Don't worry Leo, we're big boys, we can take care of ourselves" Raph said his hand on Leo's shoulder. "Let's just hope nothing happens… I think Mikey and I should go to have a talk with Master Splinter" Leo said.

"Okay, let's go quickly before somebody catches us" Don said and closed car's door. Raph got on his motorbike, ready to follow Don. Mikey and Leo got out the garage and hid to make sure that Don and Raph would be able to leave without any distraction.

When Leo saw both them leave without being followed by the Foot, he felt relieved and told Mikey: "Let's go". After making sure that they were not been followed either, Leo and Mikey went through a manhole and headed home. Meanwhile, Raph and Don were heading towards city's outskirts.

"What do you think Master Splinter?" Leo asked. "It's possible that they are after us. But we can't know sure what they want… In any case, it's too dangerous to go on surface now" Splinter said. "But what if they find us here?" Mikey asked.

"It's not very likely. I'm more worried about Donatello and Raphael" Splinter said concerned. "I hope they won't run in any trouble" Leo said. "Don't say that Leo! Whenever somebody says that they hope something bad doesn't happen, something bad will happen " Mikey panicked.

"I think this place should do just fine, let's go back" Don said after hiding the battle van. "Okay, grab on me tight" Raph said sitting on his motorcycle. "Do you have another helmet?" Don asked. "Nope" Raph replied. "I think I'll walk instead" Don said. "What? No way, it's too far away… Just get on" Raph insisted. "But we'll get arrested if somebody sees you giving a ride somebody without a helmet" Don argued.

"It's dark here, nobody will notice anything" Raph replied. "But it's dangerous. If the bike keels over then..." Don started. "It won't, I'm a good driver" Raph insisted. "But IF something unexpected happens and I fell off… I'll die" Don said.

"Fine, I'll call Casey…" Raph said tapping his shell cell. Raph called Casey who promised to come to them with an extra helmet. After a short wait Casey came. "Hi Raph. And… Raph's brother...?" Casey greeted. "I'm Donatello, nice to meet you" Donatello introduced himself politely.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too. I'm Casey Jones" Casey said and threw Donatello an extra helmet he had been carrying. "Raph… I thought your older brother's name was Leo" Casey whispered so only Raph could hear it. "Yeah, it is. Don is few months younger than me" Raph said.

"Few…Months?" Casey asked. "We're all adopted" Raph replied. "Explains the height difference" Casey stated. Raph hit him on stomach. "Um guys, are we going or not?" Don asked looking at the other two fighting. "Yeah, let's go" Raph said and got on his bike.

"Oh and Casey… I'm not sure if I should ask this from you but…" Raph started. "What? You cheeky brat, I'll come here to help you, you hit me and still have more to ask?" Casey joked. "I need a safe place for my bike. I wonder if you could keep it safe for me for a while" Raph asked.

"I'm not sure what's going on but it sounds like you are in some kind of trouble" Casey said. "Just… Take care of my bike for me, will you?" Raph asked. "Yeah sure. But you know, if you need me, just ask" Casey said.

Leo and Mikey were sitting on the couch, waiting restlessly their brothers to come back. Suddenly the front door opened and Don came in.

"Don! Where's Raph?" Leo asked. "He went to take his motorcycle to Casey's" Don replied. Leo seemed restless. "You worry too much I'm sure Raph is okay on his own" Don calmed him adding: "He might be a hothead but not insane…"

"Okay, take good care of my baby. And if you let anything bad happen to her, I'll kill you" Raph threatened. "Hey chill out, I'll keep it in the garage, nothing will happen to it I promise" Casey assured. "I hope so…"Raph said, about to leave. "Hey, want to come inside for a beer?" Casey asked. "Nah, I really need to go now" Raph replied and left.

"Those guys are still at it?" Raph thought when he saw few Foot ninjas patrolling near the manhole he was going to use. "I need to find another manhole" he thought and continued on. But the situation was no different with the other manhole.

"Damn… They are everywhere…" Raph swore. After spending almost an hour to trying to find the way to the sewers Raph decided to give a phone call to Don. "Raph, where are you? We were worried about you!" Don said. "There might be a slight problem… The Foot is everywhere. It's impossible to even get near manholes…." Raph reported.

"Try the riverbanks" Don suggested. "I already tried them but they are no good either. Seriously, these guys don't even take breaks… " Raph said. "Just try to find some safe hiding place and try again in the morning" Don advised. "Gotcha" Raph replid and closed the phone.

Suddenly somebody threw a shuriken at Raph. It scratched Raph's right hand and Raph dropped the shell cell on the ground. "Who's there?" Raph shouted turning around. Suddenly somebody attacked and Raph fell on the ground. Two guys tied Raph up.

"Now then… Where are the others?" a ninja asked walking towards Raph. Raph looked up to the guy. His voice sounded familiar. "I don't know" Raph said. "Don't play stupid" the Foot ninja said grasping on Raph's chin. Raph spitted on the guy's face.

The Foot ninja hit Raph. Raph's nose started bleeding. "Let's try this again, shall we?" the guy asked coldly. "What you want from us? The sword?" Raph shouted. "Our master wants to see you" the Foot ninja said. "Well what a nice and warm invitation… " Raph said sarcastically.

"I could give you to our Master right away but I'd prefer having all the four of you there at the same time… " the Foot ninja said. "Well forget about it" Raph replied. "Fine… I'll just call them here by myself" the ninja said picking up Raph cell shell.

Don's shell cell rang. "Leo can you pick it up for me?" Don asked. He was working with his newest inventions. Leo picked the phone up. "It's Raph" Leo said. "Answer to it" Don replied. "It's Leo here" Leo answered.

"Leo… You are one of those ninja kids right?" the voice in the phone said. "Who's there?" Leo asked. "We have captured one of yours" the voice said. "Raph? What you have done to him?!" Leo yelled. "Not much…Yet. If you want to see him, come to the abandoned shipyard and bring the sword. And make sure that it's only the tree of you. All three of you" the voice said and hanged up.

"This… Can't be happening…" Leo said shocked. "Is something wrong?" Don asked. "They got Raph…" Leo said. "The foot? What they wanted?" Don inquired. "They want the three of us to go there and bring the sword with us…" Leo replied.

"Let's tell Master…." Don started but Leo interrupted him: "No! We need to go alone! I… I'll go there alone!" "No, if we go there, it will be all three of us" Don said adding: "I'll go to wake Mikey up"

"They won't come" Raph said. "They will. My calculations will not fail" the Foot ninja said. He was sitting on a wooden box, in the abandoned shipyard, guarding Raph. "So, is the person you call your Master going to show up?" Raph asked. "My Master is a very busy man" the Foot ninja replied. "Sure, he must be really busy with all the shady business of his" Raph mocked.

"My master is a fine man. He protects the world from evil" the Foot ninja said. "Dude, that's fucked up. Last time I checked, HE was the evil guy here" Raph claimed. "You know nothing about my Master…" the Foot ninja said.

"Too bad you don't know anything about mine either" Raph replied. "I'd love to hear about him" the Foot ninja said. They heard people coming in. "We got your sword" Leo shouted. The foot ninja got up. "Bring it to me" he ordered.

Leo walked towards the Foot ninja guarding Raph. Don and Mikey were following him. Leo were about to give the sword to the man but quickly, instead of giving the sword away, he swung it and the Foot ninja was knocked down. Quickly, Mikey and Don freed Raph.

"Dude, what happened to your face? You look better than usual" Mikey joked. "Haha Mickey, nice to see you too" Raph said sarcastically. "How did you get rid of all the foot ninja?" Raph asked. "We only needed to swing that sword and pretty much all of them got knocked down… We need to hurry though, they won't stay down for long" Don answered.

"Wait! If they call their boss here, all we have to do is just beat him and then no-one will come after us ever again" Raph said. "If we can beat him" Don added. "Guys! Let's hurry!" Leo shouted. The Foot ninja had gotten up and attacked Leo with his sword. He was quick. And strong. It seemed like even the sword's magical power itself wasn't enough to defeat him.

Raph, Don and Mikey stood still. "Go! I'll follow you!" Leo shouted. The other three run away and hid on one rooftop. Meanwhile Leonardo continued his fight against the Foot ninja. Even though the Foot ninja was faster than him, Leo was able to knock the Foot ninja down again and hit him with the sword. The ninja screamed from the pain. Leo used this chance to escape.

"Somebody is coming" Don said. It turned out to be Leo. "Let's keep moving" Leo ordered. Suddenly, they could see a dark figure behind Leo. "Leo, watch out!" the others shouted. Too late, Leo was knocked down. A wounded Foot ninja was about to stab Leo with his sword. "Kenji, enough!" a low voice shouted.

The wounded ninja backed up and bowed. Leo got up and could see a man wearing samurai armor. "The Shredder…" Mikey whispered. "Don't be so scared. I just wanted to talk with you…." the Shredder said. "Talk? Next time you're trying to invite us to chat, try a postcard, not bunch of ninjas trying to knock us out!" Raph shouted.

"I didn't have much choice… But I need to ask you something. Who was the one to teach you your fighting skills?" The Shredder asked. "Your Mama" Raph replied. "Raph, don't" Leo ordered. "Too bad I never had one of those" the Shredder said a little bit amused.

"You see…. I've heard that your fighting style is similar to ours. Only taught to the Foot Clan members. But the thing is, I should be the sole survivor of the old Foot clan" the Shredder said adding: "Unless, my old rival didn't die in the laboratory's explosion thirteen years ago"

"So, you've been after us just to find this enemy of yours?" Leo asked. "Well, you also stole something from me, didn't you?" the Shredder replied. "The sword wasn't yours in the first place! You stole it!" Mikey shouted. "It was supposed to be mine" the Shredder said.

"We won't give you anything! Neither the sword nor the information you seek!" Leo shouted and attacked the Shredder. The sword's magic didn't work on him. "The sword is useless against my armor" the Shredder laughed and knocked Leo down with a single hit. Leo was blown through the air, still holding the sword.

The Shredder walked towards Leo about to take the sword of Tengu away but Raph attacked him. "Yes, this fighting style is indeed familiar" the Shredder said blocking Raph's attacks. "But I need you to stay out of the way for a while" the Shredder said and hit Raph. Raph was thrown against a wall.

Next Don and Mikey tried to attack the Shredder but they as well ended up lying on the ground. Meanwhile Leo had gotten up and tried to attack again. The Shredder used his claws to knock the sword off Leo's hands. Leo quickly took out his own katanas to block the Shredders attack.

"It's futile" the Shredder said and clashed Leo's swords away. He knocked Leo down and was going to deliver the finishing blow but froze when he heard a voice shouting: "Keep your hands away from my sons! You already destroyed my family once, I won't let it happen again!" The Shredder turned his head to see the intruder. Master Splinter stood on the edge of the building, holding the sword of Tengu.

"It's you… Foot ninjas! Attack!" the Shredder ordered. The ninjas attacked on Master Splinter, who knocked them all out with only one swing of the sword. Then, he headed towards the Shredder. Splinter attacked furiously the Shredder, who didn't seem to take any damage.

"It's no use, your sword has no effect against my armor" the Shredder laughed and attacked. He was able to scratch Splinter's face, cutting the bandage. The bandage fell off and his red-glowing eye was reveled. "Oh, it seems like you have been in touch with the blood of Fallen Star" the Shredder said.

"Ever since you stole away my dear Shen, I've waited this day to come…." Master Splinter said continuing:"The day I'll get my revenge". "A revenge? You broke in to my laboratory and stole my children!" the Shredder shouted attacking on Splinter again. They were fighting under an old water tank. The Shredder's attack missed and cut through one of the tank bars.

"You even destroyed the clan you always wanted to lead! Why?" Splinter shouted ignoring the Shredders previous words. "That old man was getting in my way…." the Shredder replied. "And some of the members were still loyal to him. I needed to get rid of the traitors" the Shredder continued and attacked again. Splinter dodged him.

"I thought we were friends… Why you took Tang Shen away from me?" Splinter asked. "You were the one who took her away from me! Me and Tang Shen had known ever since we were kids and then one day, you just came out of nowhere and stole her from me! I was supposed to marry her! I was supposed to lead the Foot clam! And then you came and tried to take everything away from me!" the Shredder shouted and attacked just to miss again.

"You can't take one's heart with force! If you had truly loved her, you should have been happy when she was happy… Even with another man" Splinter said. "Shut up! I don't want to hear that from you!" the Shredder shouted and attacked Splinter. He was able to knock him through the air. The Shredder was about to walk to Splinter but somebody attacked on him. Quickly, the Shredder hit the attacker with his claws.

Raphael's mask fell off. He had a wound on his right temple. "Those eyes… You're… I understand now…" the Shredder said. "Raphael! Get away from there!" Splinter shouted attacking the Shredder again. "But…!" Raph insisted. Splinter kicked Raph away. Raph landed near to Mikey, who was still lying down.

"You… You didn't…" the Shredder stammered enraged. "This is for trying to take my family away again" Splinter said backing off a little and swung the sword. "I already told you. That won't…" the Shredder started. The old water tank fell on him. The Shredder was crushed under the water tank.

"Sensei… That was…" Leo started. "Are you okay my sons?" Splinter asked and hurried to his sons. "You kicked me, what was that for?!" Raph shouted. "Raph, if he hadn't done that, you would be crushed by now" Don noted. "Let's get out of here" Splinter said helping Mikey up.

"You think it's over now? The Shredder was killed, right?" Mikey asked. "So we don't need to live underground anymore?" Don asked. "But do you think we can just suddenly start living normal lives? Officially, we don't even exist" Leo said.

"I can do something to that" Don said. "I don't know… For some reason, I can't believe it's over… Not yet" Leo said. "Geez, you're such an optimist Leo" Raph commented."Nobody could have survived from that" Don said. "I hope you're right" Leo replied.


	9. Chapter 9: Notes from the underground

Chapter 9: Notes from the underground

Mikey was watching a horror movie about a monster experiment turning against its own creator. "Doctor, I've never seen anything like it" the doctor's beautiful assistant said clinging on the fairly good looking and muscular Doctor. "Me neither Velma, I've become convinced that…" the man said and Mikey finished the phrase with him: "…there are some things man was never meant temper with"

Suddenly, he could hear a loud noise, like something had been broken. "Don, try to keep it down, I'm watching a movie here" Mikey complained. "It wasn't me… I think it came outside…" Don replied and checked the security cameras he had installed in the sewers. He could see a huge hole in a wall near their lair. He winded back to find out who made the hole.

"What the… Guys, you won't believe this…" Don said a little bit surprised. Leo walked to Don and asked: "What is it? Mikey and Raph followed him. "This is what the security camera caught" Don said and played the record again. They could see a monster punching a hole in the wall.

"What the… Nice prank Don" Raph said. "It's not a prank… Let's find out what's this all about" Don replied and grabbed his bag. "Um yeah, you guys can go, I'll just wait here and…" Mikey said. "Haha, nice try Mikey, you're coming too" Raph said pulling Mikey's ear.

The four teenagers reached the wall. "Well, it seems like somebody decided to make a shortcut for himself" Raph said. They could see a straight path going through the sewer's walls."Let's find out where it leads" Leo ordered. They followed the path and ended up in an old subway tunnel. They could see large footprints on the ground.

They followed the footprints and soon there was smaller footprints joining them. After a short walk, they could see a hole, leading underground. "They went through the cement… They must have been using some kind of acid" Don said examining the hole. "Nice, can we go home now?" Mikey asked.

"Go home? Aren't you even a little bit curious about that creature?" Don asked. "No, not even a bit" Mikey replied. "You're just scared" Raph teased. "Well duh! You are supposed to be scared of monsters!" Mikey shouted. "Aw, don't worry Mikey, I'm sure even the monsters will be startled by your ugly face" Raph encouraged Mikey.

"I'm going there" Don said and lit a flashlight."I'm coming too" Leo said and followed Don. "Count me in" Raph stated. "Count me out" Mikey tried and was about to leave but Raph forcefully dragged him in the hole saying: "Quit being such a pussy"

They had walked for hours in a narrow tunnel leading deep beneath the earth when they finally reached an open area. They were standing before a huge ravine and the other side of it, there was an open door that seemed to lead in some kind of laboratory. There was a stone bridge going across the canyon but the bridge was old and didn't seem very stable.

"I'm not stepping on that bridge" Mikey declared. "Fine, stay here then" Raph said and stepped on the bridge. He could hear crumbling. Raph decided it would be best get over quickly and ran to the other side. "See, it was safe" Raph said when he had reached the other side. "So why where you in such a hurry then?" Mikey teased.

Suddenly they could hear a loud noise coming behind Mikey, Leo and Don. "A monster!" Mikey shouted and rushed across the bridge. "See? It was safe" Raph said to Mikey who was now standing next to him. Don and Leo followed Mikey and they all entered in the laboratory. It was in a huge mess, broken glass and parts of machines were lying everywhere.

"Just what the heck happened here?" Raph asked poking broken glass with his sai. "Well duh! The monsters! That's what happened!" Mikey shouted. "What is this place?" Leo asked looking around. "I've seen some of these equipments before. My guess is that this place was a genetics lab researching on mutations" Don replied looking around.

"Mutation? That means they must have created monsters and then got attacked by their own creations!" Mikey panicked. Raph slapped him. "That machine doesn't seem like any genetic research equipment I've seen…." Don said pointing out a strange machine with a crystal on top of it.

"That shiny stone sure looks cool" Mikey said approaching the crystal. "Mikey, wait! That thing is probably…!" Don shouted but it was too late. Alarm went off and the crystal started to emit a force field. "Um, whoops?" Mikey said and backed off. "Damn it Mikey! I'm starting to regret bringing you here!" Raph shouted walking away from the force field. "Our feelings are mutual bro" Mikey replied.

Raph tried to clash the force field in pieces but his sai just went straight through it. He accidentally dropped his other sai. Raph tried to hit the force field with his bare hand but it clashed against the force field, just like it was a stonewall. "Okay what now?" Raph asked angrily.

The force field had already blocked their way out. "If we don't think something fast, we'll be crushed…" Leo said trying to push the force field back. "Raph, break that crystal with your sai!" Don shouted. Raph threw his sai towards the crystal. It hit. The crystal broke in pieces and the force field disappeared.

Raph picked up the sai lying on the floor and went to get his other sai which was lying with the crystal shards. When he accidentally touched one of the shards he felt pain and quickly pulled his hand away. He looked at his hand but there wasn't a cut. The pain was gone too.

"What is it?" Leo asked. "Nothing" Raph replied and carefully picked up his sai with his other sai. "Just what are these crystals?" Don asked and reached out for them. As soon as he touched it, he felt sharp pain and dropped the shard. "I should have warned you about that?" Raph asked. "You should have warned me about that" Don confirmed.

Don took out test tube and tongs from his bag. He carefully put few shards on the test tube and closed it. "I'll analyze them later, let's find out what happened here" Don said and got on one of the computers. He was able to get it running and found a video log.

"Day one. Our master believes that his enemy has an underground stronghold and desired men who would be able to dig deeper to the earth. For that, we were given a permission to mutate human subjects into beings that were more suitable for this kind of job" a scientist on the video said.

"Why would somebody want to become a monster?" Raph asked. "I don't think they had a choice…" Don said. "No, let me go, nooo!" a test subject on the video shouted when he was chained in a machine. Some weird liquid was put inside the man and he started to transform. The transformation looked really painful and the whole time, the man was screaming continuously.

"That poor guy…" Leo said with a pitying voice. "Guys… I don't like where this is going" Mikey said sounding scared. "Then keep your eyes and mouth shut …" Raph snapped back. "Day 35, the experiment appears to be a success. We have trained the creatures to use their abilities. They seem to be more intelligent that we assumed" the scientist said.

"Day 699. The creatures brought back information about an underground city. This could be the thing we were searching for! I need to inform my Master!" the scientist said excited. "Day 700. The city we found was not the stronghold Master was searching for. The project was announced as a failure and we were ordered to get rid of the creatures" the scientist told.

"Day 701. The creatures have turned against their creators! Not only they have become more violent, it seems like they were more intelligent that we could've ever dreamt of. The only thing keeping those monsters away from us is the power of crystals. But after we run out of the power, the creatures will get us. I'm starting to think…" the man said and Mikey finished the sentence with him: "perhaps there are some things man was never meant temper with."

"Okay! That's it! I'm out of here!" Mikey shouted and run away. "Wait Mikey!"Don shouted. "I'll get him" Raph said and was going to follow Mikey, but before he could even get out, Mikey already came back and quickly shut the doors. "The monsters are here!" Mikey shouted. They could hear something clash against the doors. The doors crashed open and three monsters came in.

One of them was blue and reminded some kind of beetle. Another one looked like a huge golem. The last one was red, big clawed creature. They stood in front of the four teenagers, ready to attack. "Now what?" Raph asked spinning his sais.

"I have a plan. You guys take the three on the left" Mikey said. "There are only three of them" Raph pointed out. "Yeah one for each of you. I guess I'll just sit this one out…" Mikey said trying to slip out. "Wait, maybe they understand speech. We don't want any harm on you" Leo said.

The blue creature spitted acid towards Leo. Leo dodged it by jumping backwards. "Maybe we don't want to harm them but they surely want to harm us" Mikey shouted. "Okay, time to kick some monster ass!" Raph said and rushed at the red one. "WAIT!" Leo shouted. Raph backed off.

"We… We saw what those scientists did to you… Don't worry, we're not with them. We aren't here to capture you or hurt you… We live in the sewers and one of your friends broke some walls near to our home and we got curious so we followed you here…" Leo said. The creatures stopped and looked at each other.

The blue creature walked towards Leo. The other guys raised their weapons ready to attack but Leo said: "It's okay, put your weapons down". The others lowered their weapons. The blue creature got closer Leo and stared him deep in the eyes. Then he backed up a little and said: "You don't seem like you are lying"

"The monster talked!" Mikey shouted. The creatures looked at Mikey angrily. "Mikey…" Raph said annoyed. "Sorry, he didn't mean that" Leo said. "No, it's okay… We indeed are monsters" the blue creature said a little bit melancholically.

"I'm Leonardo. There are my brothers Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo" Leo introduced them. "I'm Quarry. These are Stonebiter and Razorfist" the blue creature said. Suddenly they heard an alarm. "It's the others! Quickly! We need to activate the…" Quarry shouted but cut his sentence.

"The crystal is in pieces!" Quarry panicked. "Um yeah about that… It's kinda our fault…" Don said. "That was our last crystal!" Quarry shouted. "Um who are these "others"?"Mikey asked. "Other test subjects… But they aren't like us. They've turned in to savage beasts… That's something we also must face sooner or later" Quarry said.

"So getting caught by them is bad?" Raph asked. "Yes, they have turned against even their own kind" Quarry said continuing: "And they won't be happy seeing you either" "So let's just kick their asses" Raph said spinning his sais. "No! We don't even stand a chance against them"

"Is there anywhere to hide from them?" Leo asked. "There is… One place where they won't go but… " Quarry said. "So let's go there!" Leo ordered. "Wait, a place where even monsters won't go sounds like a very bad idea!" Mikey shouted. "Exactly. Many of us have gone there but most of them had never returned" Quarry said adding: "But that place is also a place where we can find more crystals"

"But how are we going to get there? There are monsters out there!" Mikey asked pointing out the door. "We'll dig a way out here" Quarry said and spit acid on the floor. "But they will follow us" Quarry added. "Let's not waste time" Leo said.

The teenagers followed the tunnel Quarry and his friends made. When they got out, they noticed that they were at the bottom of the ravine, under that very same bridge leading to the laboratory. They could see monsters going inside the laboratory.

"We need to hurry" Quarry said. As they run, Leo asked: "So Quarry, were the others the ones in charge of destroying our sewers?" "No… We thought that there might be crystals up there. Even though we weren't able to find any, I'm sure I felt their presence. Even though it was weak…" Quarry said.

"You can sense them?" Don asked. "Spooky" Mikey commented. "Yes. There's a strange connection between the crystals and us" Quarry said. "Maybe they somehow used the crystals in the mutation progress" Don pondered.

"Quiet" Quarry said and hid behind a huge stalagmite. They could see monster ahead of them. "I thought they were after us…" Mikey whispered. "There are many of them. Too many. That's why some of them are trying to expand their territory near the laboratory" Quarry explained.

"How we get past them?" Mikey asked. Raph stared Mikey with an are-you-serious look on his face. "What?" Mikey asked. "Seriously? Mikey, we are ninjas" Raph said. "Oh… Yeah…" Mikey replied. They sneaked past the monsters and reached a ledge. Under it, there was a whirlpool.

"That's where we are heading" Quarry said pointing out the whirlpool. "Um, have nice trip guys" Mikey said. "You know, maybe it is a good idea to have someone here in watch in case that the monsters are still coming after us" Leo said.

"Yes that's exactly what…Wait. No!" Mikey shouted. The monsters heard him. "Quickly!" Quarry yelled and they run towards the cliff. Quarry jumped in the whirlpool. The others followed him. "Okay, I think the whirlpool to the unknown is better than being eaten alive by monsters" Mikey said before jumping down.

Mikey fell down from a waterfall. The current was taking him towards a wall covered with sharp crystals. "Yikes….!" Mikey shouted and tried to swim against the current, but the it was too strong. Suddenly, he felt like his was head being pressed between two walls. He was raised from the river.

"What… Let go of me!" Mikey shouted trying to fight back. "Put him down Stonebiter" Quarry said calmly. The golem guy put Mikey down. "So are these the crystals we are searching for?" Raph asked pointing out the crystals on the walls. "No, these are different kind of crystals… The ones we need can be found inside the city… But from now on, we must keep very quiet" Quarry said.

They followed Quarry to a tunnel. "These carvings seem familiar" Don whispered. "They are just like the ones in the lair" Mikey whispered. Quarry spotted a crystal on the wall. "This one will do. I'm glad we didn't need to travel any further to this evil place" Quarry said and reached out to the crystal.

They heard rocks falling down from the ceiling. The other creatures had followed them and jumped down from the tunnel they had dug in the ceiling. "Quick! Let's go!" Leo ordered and run deeper in the tunnels. "Wait! That way leads to…!" Quarry shouted quickly grapping the crystal. "We don't have a choice!" Leo shouted.

In the end of the tunnel, there was a closed door. "Now what?" Mikey asked. Quarry, Stonebiter and Razorfist tried to break the door but it was no use. The other test subjects had nearly reached them. Don found something that looked like a switch. There was a place for a crystal.

"Quarry, place the crystal here" Don said pointing at the switch. "But…" Quarry protested. "Hurry!" Leo shouted. The others had already reached them. Leo, Raph, Stonebiter and Razorfist tried to keep them away.

Quarry inserted the crystal on the switch and the door opened. He backed up a little, like being scared that something would come out there. "It's open" Don shouted and run inside. Leo turned his head to see Don. He noticed weird crystal balls floating in a circle coming closer to Don. "Don, look out!" Leo shouted.

The crystal balls surrounded Don and he vanished. "Donnie?" Mikey shouted not being able to believe his own eyes. "Donnie!" Raph shouted and run to the place where Don disappeared. "Wait! Don't go there!" Leo shouted. "He's really gone…" Raph said.

The flying crystals flew towards Raph. He dodged them and the crystals clashed on one of the monsters and it vanished. Another bunch of crystal balls came out from nowhere and took Razorfist and the monster he was fighting against.

"What the…" Raph cried out. Stonebiter was taken too. "Okay, where ever this door leads it can't be worse than this" Leo said. "I hope those won't become your famous last words" Mikey commented. They run inside and just before getting in, Leo quickly grabbed the crystal with him.

After he had gotten in and the door had closed, Leo dropped the crystal down and fell on his knees holding his hand which had been in touch with the crystal. "Leo! Are you okay?" Raph shouted and run to his brother.

"Yeah… This feeling is familiar… Just like when I tried to hold the sword of Tengu with my bare hands…" Leo said. "Sorry, maybe only the creatures like me are able to touch them without feeling pain" Quarry said and picked up the crystal. "Guys. you won't believe this" Mikey said amazed.

The others walked to where Mikey was standing and could see a whole city, surrounded by lava. Over a city, there was a large bunch of crystals, shining like a sun. "We shouldn't be here… It's the city of the dead" Quarry panicked. "You know, if there's something that creeps me out more than the monster movies, it's the city of the dead!" Mikey said.

"Don might be there. No matter what you say, I'm going there" Leo said and walked behind a corner, searching a way down the city. "Me too. Whoever snatched away our precious brother will pay dearly for that" Raph hissed hitting his fist against his palm. "Hey guys, I found a way down there" Leo shouted.

The way down there turned to be an old gondola. It didn't seem very stable. "Am I the only one who doesn't want to go in that?" Mikey asked. "For once, I agree with you. Let's find a different way down" Raph said.

"It'll hold us… See?" Leo said stepping on the gondola. The gondola sounded like it was going to crash down. "I'm still not getting in" Mikey insisted. Suddenly, they heard running coming to their direction. "The monsters followed us!" Mikey shouted.

"Okay everybody in!" Leo shouted. The others followed him. "Make it move! Quickly!" Mikey shouted. "We need a crystal to power up this thing" Leo said examining the control panel. Quarry put the crystal on its place and the Gondola started moving. Not even a second too early. The gondola's door shut right before the monsters' eyes and the gondola started quickly slide towards the city.

One of the monsters jumped on the gondola's roof and tried to break in. "Okay, that's it. We're not gonna make it. I wish we had never come here. Guys, I had great time with you" Mikey said. "Mikey, save that shit for the time we're actually going down" Raph shouted.

They could see the monsters claw. "But I really think this is the time!" Mikey shouted. Suddenly, the monster was gone. "What? It just vanished?" Mikey asked confused. "See? We're not going down. Not today" Raph said triumphantly.

They heard a loud snap and the gondola started to fell down. "Well thank you Raphie" Mikey shouted. "What? It's not like my voice broke the cable" Raph yelled back. "There's ground, jump there!" Leo shouted and jumped down. The others followed him and landed on the solid ground, next to the city's stonewall.

"Well… That went better than I expected" Leo said. "So how we get in there?" Mikey asked. "The wall seems climbable" Raph commented. They climbed up and looked around. "These symbols again… Just like in our place" Leo said looking at the town's decorations.

"It's seems like the city has been here for ages" Raph said. "And it seems like it's been empty almost as long as well" Leo added. "This place creeps me out..." Mikey complained. "Yeah, you said the same thing about almost every place down here" Raph said fed up with Mikey's whining. "Yeah but this place creeps me out the most!" Mikey replied.

"Guys, look what I found" Leo said. He was on something that looked like a floating scooter without its wheels. There were more of them lying around behind Leo. "You just need to turn the crystals on them a little bit right and they'll float" Leo instructed. "Yay, shock therapy…" Raph said but still got to get one of those floating scooters and turned it on.

"Ouch. Tell me, why do we keep touching on these things when they are like kryptonite for us?" Mikey asked while turning the crystal. "Because we have to" Leo answered. "If you ask me, Leo is just a little bit masochist" Raph whispered to Mikey.

They drove deeper in the city with their float scooters. Suddenly, Leo felt like they were being watched from above. Leo looked up and saw a glimpse of something. "Hold up! I think I saw something…" Leo said and tried to chase after the thing. "Leo, wait!" Mikey shouted . Leo went inside a tunnel and a moment later, they saw a bright blue flash.

"Leo!" Raph shouted. He ditched the float scooter and run after Leo. He found Leo's float scooter on the ground. "LEO!" Raph shouted. "Raph, save your voice… Leo's gone, just like the others" Mikey said grabbing on Raph's arm. "I'll find them" Raph swore and walked back to his scooter, Mikey still clinging on him.

"And just what the heck you think you are doing?" Raph asked glaring Mikey. "I don't want to be snatched away. Or be left alone. So I figured…." Mikey started explaining. Raph had a disgusted expression on his face and shoved Mikey off.

Raph got on his float scooter. "Hey, where's Quarry? You don't think… He was snatched away too?" Mikey asked sounding scared. Somebody moved in the shadows. Mikey shrieked. "Calm down, it's only me…" Quarry said. "Dude, don't do that ever again" Mikey shouted.

"What were you doing, lurking around like that?" Raph asked. "I was hiding… You left me alone, I was scared" Quarry answered. "Geez, mutate some backbone, will you?" Mikey said. "I could say the same thing to you…" Raph commented.

"There it is!" Quarry shouted pointing something behind Mikey and Raph. They turned around and could see a man standing middle of mist. The man turned around and walked away. "That thing is mine" Raph said and drove after the man.

"No! Raphie! Wait!" Mikey shouted but Raph was already gone. Soon, they could see another blue flash coming from the direction where Raph was heading. "Raph?" Mikey shouted but got no answer. "They have taken him too… I knew we shouldn't come here! We're all going to disappear!" Quarry panicked.

"Hey I was supposed to be the hysteric character here… Uh… We need to go to look for him…" Mikey said and took Quarry with him. "Grab on me tight" Mikey ordered stepping on the float scooter. "Uh, never thought I would say that to a monster… I mean…" he mumbled. "It's okay…" Quarry replied and got on. They headed towards the place where they saw the light.

They found Raph's scooter but the boy was gone. "Just like Leo…" Mikey said. Mikey heard a rock falling down. He looked up and could see that mysterious guy Raph went after. "He… Hold tight" Mikey said and increased the speed. He drove in to a ramp to get to the guy.

"No wait, no!" Quarry shouted and jumped off. Mikey continued driving but instead of getting where the guy was, he flew further and was about to crash in to a wall. Mikey quickly jumped off and landed on his back on the ground.

Meanwhile, the mysterious guy had appeared near to Quarry. He took some crystal balls out from his cape and threw them at Quarry. Quarry tried to escape but got caught. The guy vanished. When Mikey got up he realized that he was all alone.

"Quarry…?" Mikey shouted but there was no answer. "This is it… I'm all alone…! Don't panic, think… Think… If I were an evil guy kidnapping people, where I would have my hideout…." Mikey said looking around. He spotted a huge tower in the center of the town. "That has to be it!" he shouted and started running towards the tower.

Mikey got inside the tower and found a room with crystallized monsters. Among them, there was also Razorfist, Stonebiter and… "Quarry…" Mikey said out loud. "So this is where they went… But where are my brothers…?" Mikey asked.

Below Quarry's crystal prison, there was a crystal that seemed to be the control for them. Mikey was about to turn it when he heard a voice saying: "Don't touch it. I'm not finished with him yet" Mikey saw the mysterious cape man. "Yes you are!" Mikey shouted and attacked the man. He was able to knock the guy down.

Mikey grabbed the guy's collar. The hood fell off and man's face was reveled. He had long, blonde hair but the top of his head was bald. The guy's eyes were almost like a lizard's except they were pale red. "Okay baldie, where are my brothers?" Mikey asked glaring the guy.

"Mickey, let him go" Leo's voice ordered. "Leo!" Mikey shouted and looked at the voice's direction. Behind Leo, there was also Raph and Don. "You sure took your time to get here" Raph smirked. "You guys are okay! But… He…" Mikey stammered.

"Relax Mikey, he's not a bad guy. Entity saw what the scientist did to Quarry and the others and wanted to help them" Don said. "Help? By closing them inside those crystals?" Mikey asked. "Their bodies are being rebuilt inside those crystals. Our crystal moon is regenerating them with its healing light. Only in a few minutes, the last of them be restored in their original human forms" Entity said.

"And just what do you get out off all this? I bet you are after something" Mikey asked suspiciously. "There's no need for you to be scared of me. You see, we Y'Lyntians are a peace loving race… Or we were. I'm the sole survivor of our race" Entity said.

"We have lived within the earth for many millennia, spiritually bonded with it. It was a symbiosis that had always sustained us for we were unable to endure to stand the harshness of the upside world. Then, we detected life on the surface. These new life forms fascinated us so we begin studying them from an outpost. The same outpost that recently became your home. Soon it became clear that our own time was drawing to a close. Our whole kind faced extinction, they're all gone now" Entity told.

"How long has it been?" Don asked. "Long enough to make this a very lonely existence…" Entity said apathetic. "That is why I want to return those people back to normal. Only then they can help me repopulate the city" Entity said.

The four teenagers looked at each other. "I wouldn't count on that. Those people have lives waiting them on the surface. Families, friends…" Leo said. "No! They must stay!" Entity shouted. "I'm sure they will be grateful but…" Leo said. "I refuse to let this city die! There's so much to pass on! They must stay! And so must you" Entity ordered.

The teenagers stayed quiet. "I told you he was after something" Mikey whispered. "Staying alone too long might have made him a little… You know…" Don said. "We appreciate the invitation to live in this wondrous city of yours but…" Leo said. "Yes, it's wondrous. Here, you could have a normal life" Entity said.

"Normal? We would be just hiding underground and after doing that for fifteen years, I'm already sick of it. So no thanks" Raph said. "Um, sorry… We're not staying" Don said. "Let's go to release the others" Leo said and headed towards the door. "Bye" Mikey said.

Entity touched the crystal that was hanging on his necklace. The door shut just right before Leo's eyes. The teenagers turned around and looked at Entity on the alert. "Trust me, you don't want to do this" Leo said. "No, heed my offer for my bond with the earth is strong" Entity answered.

The ground was shaking. A huge stone hand appeared before the teenagers and tried to catch them. The boys dodged it and the hand clashed against the wall. Entity summoned another one which was able to catch Don.

Leo tried to attack Entity but Entity used his power to make Leo fell. Leo fell on his back and was bonded by stone tentacles. Raph had sneaked behind Entity and tried to attack him but Entity noticed him and used his powers to make Raph sink in the ground. Mikey tried to attack Entity from the air, but Entity made some kind of crystal staffs fly at him. Mikey dodged the staffs backing off a little. The staffs kept following him.

"Um, guys, help?" Mikey shouted while running away from them. "Get his amulet Mikey! That's how he's controlling everything" Don shouted. "But how?" Mikey asked. Then he got an idea. He ran to towards Entity and jumped behind his back. The staffs flew at Entity and one of them knocked the crystal on the floor. The staffs fell too.

Mikey run to grab the crystal. He was able to reach it first but touching it with bare hands hurt so Mikey instinctively dropped it down again. Entity grabbed the crystal. "No you won't!" Mikey shouted and jumped on Entity. Mikey and Entity crashed against a wall. The wall broke and they landed on the next room.

The crystal was flown through the air and landed the other side of the room. Entity quickly ran after the crystal. Mikey spotted something on the ground. It was those same crystal balls that had earlier taken everyone away. Mikey took them and threw them at Entity. Entity vanished.

Mikey returned to the room where his brothers were and freed them. They headed to the room where Quarry and the others were kept and found Entity there, crystallized. "You know, I kinda pity him… He wasn't that bad, just lonely" Mikey said. "Let's free the others" Don said and walked to Quarry. He wore a metal gauntlet and turned the crystal. Soon, some kind of smoke surrounded Quarry.

The crystal started cracking and they could see a human figure. "Quarry you… You are a girl" Mikey shouted and turned around. The others did the same though Leo was the one to cover Raph's eyes. "Leo, just what kind of person you take me?" Raph asked a little bit offended.

"I'm… Back to normal…." Quarry said watching her hands. Leo took off his shirt and gave it to Quarry. Don moved to the next person and freed them. While Don was freeing people, Mikey, Raph and Leo searched clothes for them.

When everyone was freed and dressed they headed outside. But as soon as they got out from the crystal moon light's reach, the people took their monster forms. The people returned to the city. "But… Why?" Leo asked. "Maybe it's because the crystal moon… its light is the only thing that keeps these people on their human forms" Don said.

"So if they get too far from it, they'll turn back monsters?" Leo asked. "Seems like it…" Don answered. "Then… We won't be able to leave this city?" Quarry asked. "We'll figure this all out, Don's pretty good…." Leo started. "No, we can't let you stay. Who knows how long it will take…" Quarry said.

"Yeah but that's why…" Mikey started. "No. You have your own lives to get back to. If the solution is here, we'll find it" Quarry said. "I'll keep studying the crystals. I'll get back with the cure, I promise" Don said. "Thank you. For everything" Quarry said.

After saying goodbyes, the teenagers started their journey back. They had to take another route up. "I'm beat… Can't we take a nap?" Mikey asked. "Quit whining, it will take only two hours from here" Raph replied starting to get pissed off. "Can't really blame him, we haven't slept for two days" Don said.

When they finally reached the sewers they noticed something strange. "Hide" Leo ordered. They saw Foot ninjas running around, searching something. "Foot ninjas?" Leo asked. "What are they doing down here?" Raph asked.

Suddenly somebody grabbed Mikey. He was about to shout but his mouth was covered. When Mikey turned, he could see their master. "Master Splinter, what is going on?" Leo asked. "The foot is searching the sewers for us. They are everywhere, we can't reach the lair undetected. We must find a new place to stay. And fast" Splinter answered. "Hey, I know just the place" Mikey said.

April O'Neil was enjoying her bath when she heard noises coming from her living room. She put her bathrobe on and carefully opened the door a little. For her surprise she saw four boys and a man sitting in her living room.

"We're sorry to come here unannounced" Splinter said bowing down and added: "We would appreciate your hospitality" "Sorry April, this was the only place we could think of…" Leo said. "Is there anything to eat?" Raph asked. "Just… What's going on?" April asked. "It's a long story…" Leo replied.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The ones who will always be there for you

April O'Neil woke up early, as usual. It was a beautiful Sunday morning. There was still some frost on the windows but the sun was shining brightly. April's serenity was ruined by a gruff comment: "Turn it off" "Good morning sunshine…" April replied to Raph.

"Shut up Mikey" Raph mumbled still half asleep and tried to cover his eyes with a blanket. "Sorry April, he's always like that in the mornings…" Leo said. He and the other guys were on the kitchen, eating. "You made breakfast?" April asked. "Yeah, I hope you didn't mind me using your kitchen" Mikey replied.

April sat on the table. The table was set for six people. Mikey had cooked a traditional breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. "Enjoy the meal milady" Mikey said. "I'll make some coffee first" April said and turned the coffee maker on. "Michelangelo, go to wake up your brother "Master Splinter ordered.

"Raphie, wake up" Mikey said pulling away Raph's blanket. "Five more minutes" Raph mumbled stealing his blanket back. "Raphie, if you don't get up, I'll eat your share of bacon" Mikey threatened. "Do that and I'll kill you later" Raph said. Mikey got up and walked back in the kitchen.

"I'm getting closer to your plate…" Mikey reported. "I'm holding your plate. And your fork. And there's your bacon on my fork. And soon it'll be in my…." Mikey told. "Mikey! Hands off!" Raph shouted running to him, grabbed the plate and kicked Mikey off the table. He sat down and started to eat, still dozing off.

"Want some coffee? It'll wake you up" April said offering a cup."Yeah sure" Raph replied and grabbed the coffee cup. He took a sip and almost spitted the coffee out. "Well, can't say it didn't work but it sure tastes like crap" Raph said. "Oh, sorry, maybe I should have put some sugar and milk on it. I'm used to drink it black" April said.

"Could I have some too?" Don asked politely. "Have mine" Raph said and gave his cup to Don. "Um…" Don said and looked at the cup and then Raph. "What?" Raph asked irritated. "Well, it's not very hygienic to…." Don started. "You're saying I'm unhygienic?" Raph asked and added: "Besides, we used to live in the sewers, if you still can remember it, mister hygienic freak"

Don sighed. He tasted the coffee. "This actually isn't half bad" Don said. "Let me taste too" Leo said. He took a sip and stayed quiet for while. "It's… OK…" Leo said but his face was telling a completely different story. "You want to taste it too Mikey?" Don asked offering the cup to him.

"Nah, I'm okay" Mikey replied. "Coward" Raph mocked him. "No, I just don't want to get any Raphie germs. I might turn as ugly as you" Mikey teased. "You little…!" Raph shouted and tried to hit Mikey. "My sons! Remember that we are guests here!" Splinter shouted.

Raph glared at Mikey but got back in the table and continued his meal looking still pissed off. "Is it always like this?" April asked. "No, usually they are much worse" Splinter sighed.

Mikey sat on the couch watching a movie. Don came and changed the channel. "Hey! I was watching a movie!" Mikey shouted. "You have already seen this… Besides, there's a science program I must see" Don said and sat down.

"What are you watching?" Raph asked as he came out from the shower, drying his hair on a towel. "Program of quantum fluctuation" Don said, Mickey saying same time: "Kingdom of the Spiders" After a short pause, Raph said: "Quantum fluctuation sure sounds interesting"

"Thank you Master Splinter, you helped me a lot" April said when he stepped in the room with Splinter. "Sensei! I was watching TV first and then Don came and changed the channel!" Mikey shouted. "Well you have been watching television this whole day, it's my turn now!" Don argued. April was shocked.

"Michelangelo, you should let others have their turns. Donatello, it's rude to change the channel if somebody else is watching something and most importantly, Raphael, don't walk around other people's houses naked" Splinter scolded and added: "And turn the TV on channel six, my favorite program is starting".

"Hey, that's not fair" Mikey protested. "It is because his favorite show is also my favorite and this is my home and my television" April said. "Oh, sorry April…." Mikey replied. Don changed the channel. "Hey where's Leo?" Raph asked putting clothes on. "On the attic, meditating" Splinter answered. "Meditating huh?" Raph asked.

"Why the foot is searching for us? Is it because they want revenge? Besides, what is the Foot anyways? What are we? Master Splinter told us we were some kind of test subjects. Are we even human? There are so much questions but I don't know how to get the answers… Do I even want to know the answers?" Leo thought.

Somebody interrupted Leo's meditation. "Leo, the food is ready" Raph shouted. "Okay, I'll be there" Leo answered and got downstairs. The others were already in the table. Don and April were talking about some science stuff and Raph was yelling to Mikey who had stolen his food. Again.

Mikey and Raph's fight continued through the meal. And even after it. And the further the fight went on the more physical it became. "Raph, calm down" Leo said trying prevent Raph attacking on Mikey. "Calm down? How the heck I'm supposed to calm down!" Raph shouted.

"You two are being childish" Don said. "Shut up geek" Raph hissed. "At least HE has something between his ears" Mikey said. "Mikey, quit provoking him!" Leo shouted. "I guess something like this is inevitable when six people are being squeezed in single person's apartment…" April sighed.

"That's it, I'm getting out of here!" Raph shouted. "No, you can't go, the Foot are still there" Leo said. "Well, let's go to flush them out from our sewers" Raph replied. "But we don't know what they want" Leo stated.

"Does it matter? We defeated their boss so we can defeat them too" Raph said. "But we were not the ones to beat him. Master Splinter did. With the sword of Tengu which is still in our lair" Leo replied. "Raphael, let's wait a little bit longer before making our move" Splinter said. Raphael turned his eyes away and tried to swallow his anger.

"Hey April, do you have any kind of research equipment here?" Don asked. "I should have a microscope and some other stuff in the basement…. What are you going to do?" April asked. "I just wanted to do a little research on the crystals we found… I won't be doing anything dangerous here, don't worry" Don assured April.

"You're free to use them but… Don't break anything, okay?" April asked. "Me? Don't worry, I'll be careful" Don said.

April needed to run some business and when she came back, it was already late. The TV was on but no-one was actually watching it. Mikey was asleep on the floor while Raph was sleeping on the couch. Don was still working on the basement and Master Splinter and Leo were on the attic.

"Geez…. You'll catch a cold" April said and covered Mikey with a blanket. She smiled a little. "It's almost like I became a mother of four in overnight" April thought and put blanket on Raph. "I wonder if Don's still working…" April thought and headed to the basement.

Don indeed was still working. He was so absorbed in his research that he didn't even notice April coming. "Aren't you going sleep?" April asked. "Huh? Sleep? It's not even…" Don started and after looking at his shell cell continued: "…that much past midnight yet"

"So, did you find out anything?" April asked. "I couldn't do much with these equipments… I did find out something but not exactly what I was trying to… And I still need to make it sure… Sigh, I wish I had my own stuff here…" Don replied.

"I mean, no offense April it's nice to be here with you but…" Don said. "…You guys miss your home. I can understand that, I felt the same when I was staying with you" April comforted. Don smiled at her. "Maybe I'll continue this tomorrow…" Don said and stood up.

It was so early at the morning that the sun hadn't even risen yet. Leo opened the window and was about to get out when he heard a voice behind his back asking: "Your morning training my son?" Leo turned around and saw Master Splinter.

"Yes sensei… While the city is still quiet" Leo replied. "Your discipline is commendable Leonardo, have a good run" Master Splinter said. Leo got on the window, ready to jump."But I trust you not thinking about going back scout the lair alone" Splinter added.

Leo stopped. "Why would I do that?" he asked seemingly casually. "Just because the sewer tunnels are over run with the Foot ninja? So we are forced hide here April's like cowards?" Leo said sounding slightly mad. "You asked a question that is not a question. If we are to succeed against our foes we will need to act together as a team, not as rash individuals" Master Splinter replied.

Leo recalled giving a similar speech to his brothers in the near past. "I understand Master Splinter... But I'm curious though. With the Shredder gone, what are the Foot ninja up to? " Leo said. "Patience my son" Splinter said and continued: "I have a feeling that we will find out all too soon…"

Leonardo was running on the rooftops. When he was about to head back again, he got surrounded by a bunch of Foot ninjas. "There are too many of them" Leo thought holding his sword ready to attack. He spotted a rope going between two buildings behind the ninjas.

Leo ran straight towards one Foot ninja but instead of attacking him, Leo jumped over the ninja, grabbed the rope and cut it. He swung to the other building's roof and started running away. The Foot followed him.

"Raphie, wake up, it's breakfast time" Mikey said jumping on Raph. "You little…" cursed and tried to attack Mikey. Mikey quickly dodged him and ran away. Raph walked to the table and said: "Hey April, give me some of that shitty tasting drink, I need to get my eyes open to kill Mikey" "Um sure" April answered and poured him some coffee.

After Raph had completely woken up he looked around a little. "Hey, where's Leo?" Raph asked. "He's engaged to his morning exercises" Master Splinter answered. "On the attic?" Raph asked. "Outside" Splinter said. "Oh. So I am not allowed to go out but Leo is?" Raph asked.

"Raph, do I have to really point out why?" Don said. "Are you trying to say that Leo is so much better than me and can take care himself while I can't?" Raph asked. "No. You were going to attack the Foot ninjas and get to our lair while Leo is just simply going for a run" Don said.

"I'm going out too" Raph declared. "Wait, it's better if you don't. It's going to rain, I'm sure Leo will be back soon too" Don replied. "I'm not made of sugar" Raph said. "Yeah, we have noticed how sour you can be" Mikey jeered. "Raphael, sit down" Splinter ordered. "Hmph, why is it always Leo who gets all the fun?" Raph asked grumpily.

Leo fell on the ground panting. He heard a thunderclap. "Great, a storm, like it wasn't bad enough already" Leo thought. He heard footsteps in front of him and raised his head. There were six Foot ninjas standing in front of him, ready to attack.

Leo got up and raised his sword. He backed off a little and tried to find an escape route but soon he realized that the battle couldn't be avoided. He took his other sword out and waited for the enemy's attack.

Only in few minutes, all the Foot ninja were lying on the ground. Leo heard another thunderclap and the rain started pour down. "Great, just my luck" Leo said. He sensed something and looked up. Leonardo was surrounded by the Foot. "And the day keeps getting better and better" Leo thought.

"It's pouring" Don said glancing through the window. "Leo must be crazy, training in rain like that" Mikey said. "Well, you know Leo, he won't let small things like that get in the way of his training" Raph commented. "Still, he's been gone for hours now" Don said. "Let's go find him" Raph said, ready to go. "No! You'll wait here until your brother comes back" Splinter ordered.

"I wonder if I got away" Leo thought leaning on the wall panting. "Tired?" a familiar voice asked. Leo got up quickly and drew his swords. "I see that you are not carrying the sword of Tengu with you" a man standing in the shadows said.

"Kenji, right?" Leo asked. "Yes. That's my name" Kenji answered and stepped out the shadow. "Why is the Foot after us?" Leo inquired. "You attacked on our master" Kenji answered and walked towards Leo, holding a sword.

Kenji pointed his sword at Leo. "You defeated me once. Me, who had never lost a battle before. You made me look bad in my Master's eyes, I need to defeat you to get my honor back" Kenji stated. "Isn't your master dead?" Leo asked.

"My Master won't die from something like that. Neither will I" Kenji stated and attacked Leo. Without the sword of Tengu, Leo hardly stood a chance against Kenji. It was hard to tell if Kenji was mad or not. He attacked with immense force but his expression stayed calm and he was perfectly focused.

Leo lost his swords and fell on the ground. Kenji walked to him and was about to stab his sword on Leo, when a voice stopped him saying: "Kenji, it's okay for now". Kenji stepped away from Leo and bowed. Leo got up and could see the Shredder.

"You… You shouldn't be…" Leo started. The Shredder walked to Leo, raised Leo's right hand and cut off the bandage on it. Dark red letters were revealed. "HC-01…" The Shredder said and continued: "This was the proof I needed"

"Proof?" Leo asked. "Yes. Fourteen years ago, someone broke in my laboratory and took four children away from me. TS-01, BA-01. CS-02 and… You. HC-01" The Shredder said. "Yeah my Master told me how he saved us from you" Leo replied bitterly.

"Saved? I guess he didn't tell you everything" The Shredder laughed. Leo didn't know what to answer because he had been thinking about it too. He was pretty sure that there were things that Master Splinter hadn't told them yet.

"Our Master told us that you used as a test subjects. You manipulated our genes and fused us with something called "the blood of the Fallen Star"" Leo said. "All I did was just for your own good. I made you into superior beings" the Shedder said.

"Superior beings? I don't get it!" Leo shouted. "Kenji, if you please…" the Shredder asked. Kenji nodded and walked closer Leo. Leo thought he was going to attack but instead, Kenji took off his own shirt. "Look closely" Kenji said.

Something black covered Kenji's right hand. The black area on Kenji's skin kept spreading, until his whole body was pitch black excluding few patterns on his skin which were glowing bright red. As were his hair and eyes. Kenji's eyes looked just like Master Splinter's left eye.

"That's… What is he?" Leo asked. "He's like you. A child of the Fallen Star" the Shredder answered. "I'm not like him. I can't transform like that" Leo replied. Kenji had already returned back to his normal form. "It's because your power hasn't been activated yet" the Shredder said.

"I… I don't want to become like that" Leo answered. "That form has it benefits. You'll become invincible" the Shredder said and added: "Though nobody can force you to take that form" "Why are you telling me all this? What is it that you are after?" Leo asked.

"You" the Shredder answered and continued: "I want you to join me". "Join you? Why would we ever join you!" Leo shouted. "Because I am your father" the Shredder said. Leo was a little bit shocked. He stayed quiet and walked to get his swords.

"I can give you anything you want. Everything, you should have always had" the Shredder said offering his hand to Leo. "My only father…" Leo said and grabbed his swords tightly. "My only father is Master Splinter! I'll never join you!" Leo shouted and attacked the Shredder.

"It's already getting dark and Leo isn't back yet…" Don said. "This isn't like him. Master Splinter, we should go look for him, he might need our help!" Raph shouted. "Perhaps you're right" Master Splinter said. "I.. Am?" Raph asked. "He is?" Don and Mikey asked.

"Let's go to find your brother" Master Splinter said and got up. He and the three teenagers were heading towards the stairs when they heard glass breaking behind them. They quickly turned around and saw blood covered Leo lying on the floor. "Leo!" his brothers shouted and run to him.

Mikey raised Leo on his arms. The others bended down around him. "Who did this to you?" Raph asked. Leo wasn't able to answer. Raph got up and gnarled: "I'm going to find out who did this to you" Raph was about to get out from the window when he heard Leo's weak voice saying: "Raph… Wait…"

Raph turned around and returned to Leo. Leo put his shaking hand on Raph's shoulder and pulled him closer. "He's back…" Leo said weakly. "Who's back?" Raph asked. "The..Shredder…" Leo mumbled and fainted.

"No…No way…" Raph stuttered. "He was crushed under that water tank. There's no way any human can survive from that!" Raph shouted. "Maybe the Shredder isn't a human" Mikey suggested. "This is no time for jokes Mikey" Raph grunted. "I'm not joking" Mikey said sounding serious.

"We need to get him in a hospital" April said. "No, hospital would be too dangerous. We need to get him somewhere safe" Master Splinter said. Don and Mikey raised Leo up. Raph looked out from the window. "Guys, we're going to get some uninvited house guests soon" Raph said taking out his sais.

Foot ninja invaded in the house. "April, take Leo" Don said and went to help Raph with the Foot soldiers. April and Mikey started dragging Leo towards the stairs while the others were dealing with the Foot. Suddenly Leo started to regain his consciousness. He could hear fighting. "My swords…Where are… My swords…?" Leo mumbled.

"Sorry Leo, you're sitting this one out" Mikey said. "But… The Foot….The Shredder…." Leo staggered. "Take it easy, we'll get you out here" Mikey promised. The Foot ninjas had reached them. "April, take Leo" Mikey said and took out his nunchakus.

"I can walk…" Leo said but he had trouble to stay on his foot even with April's help. "Just lean on me Leo" April said. "April… Leave me… Get away from here… This is our fight… Not yours…" Leo said weakly. "Not my fight? Look Leo, we're all family now I could never run away alone and leave you behind" April said. They walked to the stairs leading downstairs but they were already full of Foot ninjas. April gave a surprised scream and Mikey came to her help. He knocked the ninjas down the stairs. "I'll guard the stairs from here, you guys go!" Raph ordered. Don and Master Splinter followed Mikey, April and Leo.

"Be alter, the shop is our only exit and they know it" Splinter said and helped April to carry Leo. "Mikey, make yourself useful and scoop out the store" Don whispered. Mikey's eyes were telling: "Why me?" But he answered: "No problem".

Mikey sneaked to downstairs and peeked inside the shop. "It's quiet… Maybe too quiet…" Mikey said. "Always wanted to say that" Mikey said cheerfully and opened the door wide open. He spotted four ninjas in the room. They seemed different than the Foot ninjas they had seen before. They were wearing Chinese straw hats and seemed way more badass than their comrades.

"Um… Nice hats" Mikey said and closed the door. Mikey run back to the others. "Mikey, wrong way" Don noted. "Wrong way? Major ambush down there!" Mikey yelled. "We don't have a choice… They are pouring in the windows upstairs" Don said.

"Hey, what's the story down there?" Raph shouted trying to keep the Foot out of the stairs. "There's some seriously mean looking guys down there" Mikey shouted back. "Mean looking? Duh…" Don said sarcastically and went to see the situation himself.

He went inside the shop but couldn't see anyone. After he walked further in, he noticed the four guys ready to attack. "Nice hats" Don said. The guys attacked on Don. Don dodged them and retreated back in the stairs.

"Raphie, we have trouble in here" Don shouted. "Like I don't have trouble up here!" Raph shouted kicking few foot ninjas down. "April, I count on you" Splinter said and left Leo with April. He went to the shop to see the intruders.

"The Shredders elite guard. They are the deadliest of his warriors. Lethal assassins" Splinter said. "Raph, the guys run in something bad in the shop!" April shouted. "Hey, I got my hands full up here!" Raph shouted. Splinter hurried to him.

"Go help your brothers, I handle the situation up here" Splinter said. Raph nodded and run downstairs. When he had reached the shop he looked at the Shredder's elite guards. "Hey, nice hats" Raph commented. "Yeah, we thought so too" Mikey replied.

"Okay, let's do this" Raph said attacked the soldiers. After a short fight, Raph crashed against a wall, dropping his sais down. Soon Don followed him. Mikey was busy to dodge an elite guards' attacks. "Sorry April for doing this" Mikey said backing off to a shelf. The Foot soldier attacked on him and when Mikey dodged, the shelf fell on the Foot soldier.

Don and Raph had gotten up and continued fighting. Even though they were able to knock the Foot elite down, they just kept rising up again. "Are these guys invincible or something?" Mikey asked. Raph clashed his sais against one of them and said: "They wouldn't be his elite guard if these guys were totally useless"

The situation seemed hopeless. Leo and April had reached the downstairs and Splinter decided to go to help his sons. When April and Leo where about to enter the shop, somebody sneaked behind them and grabbed Leo.

"I'll finish the job I started" a Foot ninja said. "No! Let him go!" April shouted and tried to attack the man. The man pulled out a sword and pointed it at April. "Back off. A gentleman should never lay his hands against a lady"

April had no chance but to stay away. "Now then, maybe I should finally put you out from your misery" Kenji said to Leo. April saw a Foot soldier's sword lying on the ground. She quickly grabbed it and clashed it against Kenji's sword.

"I warned you" Kenji said and was about to attack April but Leo distracted Kenji and April was able to hit Kenji's sword away. "April! Leo! I'm coming! " Raph shouted and ran towards them. Kenji looked at the boy coldly and threw Leo against Raph with immense force. They both flew through the room and landed on the ground.

"Leo! Raph!" April shouted and run after them. Kenji followed them calmly. "Wait. You won't hurt them anymore" Master Splinter said and stopped Kenji. "Hamato Yoshi… My Master will be pleased after I get rid of you" Kenji said emotionlessly and attacked Splinter.

"Are you guys okay?" April asked lifting Leo up. "I'm fine" Raph said staggering a little. "That guy… I'm going to crush him" Raph shouted. "Master Splinter is already taking care of him, we need to get Leo safe" April said.

Two of the Foot elite soldiers attacked on them. "Take Leo!" Raph shouted and engaged in to a battle. April headed towards the front door. Suddenly, somebody kicked the door off. The Shredder walked inside the shop.

"Crap…" Raph swore. "It's really him… The Shredder… Just like Leo said" Mikey said. "This is what happens to those who go against me" the Shredder said pointing at the Leo with his claws. "Perhaps you are smarter than your brother… Join me my children" the Shredder said.

"I think the Shredder got a little bit loony after that crash" Mikey whispered. "Are you crazy? Why would we ever join you?" Raph shouted and was going to attack the Shredder. "No!" Splinter shouted and jumped between the Shredder and Raph.

"If you are not with me, you're against me and I will crush anyone who stands in my way" the Shredder said. "April? Are you sure that there are not any other ways out?" Don asked. "No there's… Wait… " April said and started dragging Leo towards a storeroom.

"Foot soldiers! Attack!" the Shredder commanded. Splinter, Raph, Mikey and Don fought against Shredder's men but they were soon overpowered. "We need a miracle to get out from here alive!" Mikey shouted. Suddenly, a motorcycle came through the store window and knocked two of Shredders elite guards down.

"Need help?" the rider asked. "Casey!" Raph shouted delighted. "Well not exactly what I was hoping for… But I guess it's better than nothing" Mikey said. "Kill him!" the Shredder ordered. "Hah, I want to see you try" Casey said and drove towards the Shredder. He jumped off and the bike crashed at the Shredder.

"Let's follow April!" Mikey shouted. "What?" Raph yelled. "Michelangelo is right! Let's retreat! Hurry!" Splinter ordered. They followed April to the storeroom and locked the door. "Great, let's lock up ourselves in a closet, no way out and wait for our deaths" Raph said.

"This shop used to be a grocery store. And this store room is a former cold room" April told. "How fascinating" Raph replied sarcastically. "When we moved here, we removed the cooler and it left a hole in the wall. My father never patched it up properly" April said pushing a shelf.

"Hey guys… Do you smell smoke?" Mikey asked. "Now you mentioned it…" Don replied. "Let's hurry!" Raph shouted and helped April to move the shelf. He used his sais to get off the metal panel covering the hole.

Splinter and Don helped Leo through the hole, April was right behind them. "My car is in the backyard, let's hurry" April said. When she got to her van she remembered: "But I don't have my keys!" "Don't worry, I got this" Don said and quickly picked the lock. Then he did something with the wires and the car started.

"Okay, everyone is in, let's go!" Casey shouted. When they drove past April's house, they could see it burning. The police and fire department had already arrived. "My home…" April said crying. "Sorry April… We… It's our fault…" Don said.

"We need to find us a safe hideout, as far as here as possible" Don said. "Hey guys… I know just the place" Casey said. They drove out of the city as the first snow was falling on the burning house's remains.


	11. Chapter 11: Grandma's farmhouse

Chapter 11: Grandma's farmhouse

"A peaceful small town like this surely has its own charm. I'm sure you'll grow to love this place" Casey said smiling. April stared apathetically out the window and could see there a sleepy snow-covered town. "I wouldn't count on it…" April replied depressed.

"This city isn't actually that bad at all. If the situation was different, I think I'd loved to take a vacation here. But… Too much has happened too quickly, I don't know what to think anymore…." April thought. "Just wait until you see my Grandma's farmhouse! You're gonna love it!" Casey babbled excited but April remained silent.

Casey took a quick look of April. He sure knew that April was feeling down but the thing he wasn't sure about was how to deal with it. Casey wasn't very good at handling situations like this and it felt like his cheerfulness was just causing the opposite effect than wanted. The more cheerful he was, the more depressed April seemed. "I hope Leo will be okay" April finally said. Casey couldn't answer anything to her.

Leo, Raph, Don, Mikey and Splinter were traveling in van's trunk. Leo was lying down on a pile of blankets, covered with a few as well. Mikey, Don and Splinter were gathered around Leo, Splinter holding Leo's hand. Raph sat silently in a corner, blankly staring the van's backdoor.

Ten hours ago, they had reached a gas station. April and Casey went there to buy some blankets, sewing equipment, food and first-aid equipments, as well some medicines. After they came back, Splinter sewed Leo's wounds closed and replaced the bandages made out of their clothes with new, proper ones.

Even though the others were hurt too, nobody really cared about their own injuries. The only thing they could think right now was Leo. Even though they had given him painkillers, they didn't really seem to help much. Leo had a high fever and the cold shaking van wasn't really helping the situation at all. It was painful even to look at him.

"If Leo dies… No… I mustn't think that… I feel so useless right now… Why can't I do anything for him? If I could, I would take his place. I…I…Shit… I feel like crying. No, I can't cry now. I need to stay strong. For them" Raph thought looking at his family. " I'll protect them. I won't let anyone to hurt the ones close to me ever again…The Foot, the Shredder… I'll kill them. I kill them all" Raph thought shaking a little.

Mikey glanced at Raph but didn't say a word. Usually, Mikey didn't stay quiet even for one minute, not even when he was asleep. But since they left April's house, he hadn't said a word. It was weird. Don kept constantly checking Leo's state and was telling him stuff like: "Hang in there" and "it's going to be okay".

Don seemingly was taking this situation better than anyone else, but that was just because his self-defense mechanism was making him to shut away all the negative thoughts, unable to accept what could happen. But if Leo really would die, then Don would be the one to hit the bottom hardest.

"We're here. Isn't it great?" Casey asked driving in old farmhouse's yard. "It looks like its haunted" April replied looking at the house prejudiced. "Well, it's been abandoned since Grandma passed away three years ago. But hey, little fixing here and there and it'll be as good as new" Casey said merrily and stopped the car.

"Okay gentlemen, we're here" Casey said opening the van's backdoor. "Wow… Just…Wow…" Raph said. "I know, isn't it great?" Casey said misunderstanding Raph's comment. "It's like straight from one of Mikey's movies" Raph replied.

"You heard that April? At least Raph agrees with me" Casey said proudly, helping Splinter to carry Leo in. "Actually, he said that he thinks it's like straight from a horror movie" Don translated to Casey. Mikey and Raph carried blankets and other equipments in.

They laid Leo down on an old couch. "It's cold here… I'll get some wood for the fireplace" Casey said and left to get the wood. "I see what I can do to the heating system… Mikey and Raph, you should try to clean this place up a little" Don said.

After few days, the house started to look livable. But the house was pretty much the only thing to get better during that time. Leo's state started to get stable but he still hadn't opened his eyes. Master Splinter stayed beside him the most of time.

During the first few days April just stayed in her room, hardly eating anything or talking to anyone. Casey tried to cheer her up but after being told "I just want to be alone" for few times, he decided that maybe it really was the best to let her be. At least for while.

April had started writing a diary. As she wrote down the painful memories of hers as well her fears about the future, the pain started slowly to ease.

As for Don, he was constantly fixing something. It was his way to deal with this situation. As long as he was keeping his hands and brains busy, there was no time to think about all that had happened. But soon, there wouldn't be anything left for him to fix.

Casey, Raph and Mikey helped Don with his projects whenever they could. Casey had also been doing part-time jobs to get the food in table. Feeding four teenagers and three adults sure wasn't cheap, especially when one of the teenagers was mainly eating medicines.

One would think that even in this kind of situation, Mikey would've been his usual self, complaining about how he was missing television, his videogames and comics and telling jokes to cheer the others. Yeah, one would think that. But Mikey hadn't been doing any of that, in fact, nowadays it was rare to see him even smile or hear him to talk.

Occasionally, Mikey would join Casey and Raph's goofing around and sometimes even laughed at them but it was almost like his laugh was lacking genial happiness. But mainly Mikey used his free time to practice in the barn. The same Michelangelo who usually tried to slack off when they were supposed to be training, was now constantly trying to polish his skills, completely alone.

When Casey wasn't working, he was trying to fix his Grandma's old car. Raph was helping him the best he could. In front of the others Raph tried his best to act like nothing had happened. But at night, after the others had gone to sleep, he would climb on the roof and stand up there, guarding the house.

Raph was sleeping only two or three hours in day, some nights, he didn't sleep at all. And when he did sleep, he never slept well. Even the smallest voices were enough to wake him up. Raph tried to compensate the lack of sleep with huge amounts of coffee.

"The farmhouse is starting to feel like a home by now… Now when it's fixed, this is actually a pretty neat place … And the scenery here is very beautiful" Don told to unconscious Leo. Don was sitting on an armchair next the couch where Leo was sleeping. Raph was a little bit further away, leaning his back to the doorframe. "He won't hear you" Raph thought but said instead: "Yeah, especially the near river. We should go there together after you're better"

"We all should go there together. Have a picnic or something… Well, it's a little bit too cold for picnics though… Remember the times, when we were kids and wanted to go on picnics in the sewers? Once we got attacked by rats but you and Raph chased them away. And Mikey kept crying over how you chased his friends away" Don told.

It was painful to try to remember Leo, smiling, running and bossing them around. Even though Leo was lying right in front of them, still, it felt like he wasn't really there. But the way Don talked to Leo made Raph feel like the one who hardly existed in Don's world wasn't Leo but Raph. Right now, Don's eyes could only see Leo.

And because Raph though that it maybe the way it should be, he decided to leave Don and Leo alone. "I'll go to help Casey" Raph said yawning. "Are you sure you don't need my help?" Don asked. "No, if you helped, you might actually fix that old thing and Casey needed to find a new hobby. Besides, someone has to watch over Leo" Raph said and walked out.

"Geek" Raph mocked Casey. He was sitting on the car Casey was fixing, waiting for the order to push the accelerator pedal. "Snot face" Casey replied polishing some car part. "Bonehead" Raph answered. "Okay kid, turn it over" Casey said after placing the part on its place. "Yawn… Alright gramps" Raph replied. The motor wasn't still sounding any better.

"Okay, ease off and check the hand brake, we won't want it to roll do we?" Casey said. Raph yawned. "Yeah yeah gramps…" Raph replied but instead of handbrake, he accidentally pushed the gearstick. The car took a sudden spurt and luckily, Casey was able to jump out of its way just in time.

"Raph! Foot off the gas pedal!" Casey shouted. The throttle was stuck. "It's stuck!" Raph yelled back. "Use the brake!" Casey shouted. Hitting the brakes caused the car spin uncontrollably. It was going to hit the barn's wall.

"Time to abandon the ship!" Raph shouted and jumped out in the snow drift. The car crashed straight trough the wall and stopped. "Perfect parking" Raph joked. "Dude, not cool" Casey replied. Suddenly Raph realized something and quickly ran inside the barn. Mikey wasn't there. Raph gave a relieved sigh.

"Mikey sure has luck on his side. This must be the only time when he couldn't be found here" Raph said. "What about me?" Mikey asked walking inside the barn. "And why there's a car in the wall?" Mikey added after seeing the car. "I'm making sure that Don won't run out the things to fix" Raph replied yawning. Mikey smiled a little. Though his smile seemed a little bit forced.

"You did what?!" Don shouted. "It was an accident" Raph defended himself. Don kept his palm on his face. "The car was already broken anyways" Raph argued and poured some coffee in his cup. "Isn't that your fifth cup today?" Don asked pointing at Raph's cup.

Raph hadn't been counting them but probably it was over ten already. "Yeah, something like that" Raph replied. "You know… You shouldn't be drinking that much coffee, it's not good for your health" Don noted. "I'll try to remember that" Raph said and took a sip.

It was getting late. People one after another went to sleep and after Raph was sure that the others were asleep, he climbed on the roof. The night was pretty cold. "Better keep moving…" Raph thought and walked around the rooftop as silently as he could.

At the first night at the farmhouse, Raph had climbed up to the rooftop so he could be all alone. He had been keeping the tough guy act up the whole day and was already tired of it. The more he had tried to hide his frustration the stronger it became and on that point, it had already reached its limits. Tears poured down Raph's cheeks and he just couldn't quit crying, no matter what.

Raph thought that he would go back inside after he could stop crying but somehow ended up staying up there the whole night, even long after the tears had stopped. During that night he had gone through a lot of thinking. He couldn't do anything to change the past, neither to help Leo to heal.

But he could protect the others. As long there was somebody on watch all the time, they wouldn't get under a surprise attack at least that was what Raph thought. After all, they couldn't be completely sure that the Foot wasn't still after them. But because it wasn't very likely, so there was no need for the others to be worried about it. Raph would be still guarding up there every night, just in case that something would happen.

"Maybe I should start sleeping more during the day…" Raph thought when he had hard time to keep his eyes open. "Maybe a few seconds won't hurt" Raph thought and closed his eyes. He accidentally fell asleep. Raph swayed a little and ended up falling on the ground. Luckily, there was a thick snow cover where he fell.

Raph thought that he was being attacked and quickly got up holding his weapons but after seeing that he was alone, he put his sais back on his belt. Somebody had heard the sound of Raph's fall and was getting closer the window. Raph hid and could see April looking out of the window. Soon, April went back to sleep.

"I wonder what time it is… Four o'clock maybe?" Raph thought. "Master Splinter will wake soon so maybe I'll go to sleep…" Raph thought and sneaked inside, As soon as he hit the bed, Raph fell asleep immediately.

When April woke up and went in the kitchen, she saw a huge Christmas tree in the living room. Under it, there were few presents. "What's this?" April asked. "I thought we should have a party. It's Christmas after all" Casey replied merrily. "I'm not really on Christmas mood…" April said.

"I have a presents for you" Casey said smiling. "For all of you actually" Casey added. "Let's open them right away, I'll just go to wake up Raph" Casey declared and headed upstairs in the room where Raph was sleeping. While Casey was away, Don and Mikey came in.

"Okay, we fixed the barn's wall…. What is this?" Don asked when he saw the Christmas tree. "Casey thought that we should have a Christmas party" April replied. "Christmas party…? Sigh…. To be honest I'd prefer not to have one…" Don sighed. "I know how you feel…" April said.

"Where's Casey now?" Mikey asked. "Waking Raph up" April replied. Don put his hand on his face. "What? Is it a bad thing?" April asked. "Even though I just recently noticed this… I doubt that ever since we came here Raph haven't slept properly. So we thought it was better not to wake him up when he finally sleeps" Don told.

"Okay now that everyone is up lets open the presents!" Casey shouted cheerfully when coming downstairs. Raph followed him quietly, hardly awake. Because April hadn't really been paying attention the others until now, this was the first time she realized how tired the boy seemed. "Not everyone…" Mikey said looking at Leo joylessly.

"Anyways, here" Casey said and gave everyone their gifts. Don noticed that Casey had given more gifts for April than the others. Mikey opened his present. Inside, there was a comic book. "I already have this issue… At least, had, at our old place" Mikey said. "Ah, sorry, I should have asked first but that would have ruined the surprise" Casey replied. "No it's fine, thanks" Mikey said.

April opened one of her gifts. Inside, there was a necklace. She was a little bit surprised. "Casey… This is…" April started. "Ah, sorry if it's not your style… I've never had to choose gifts for girls…" Casey said. "It's wonderful but where you got this?" April asked. "It was my Grandma's. It was very precious for her, she got it from Grandpa on their first date" Casey replied.

"What? Are you sure you want to give this to me? It was your Grandmother's after all…" April said. "Well. It's not like I would use something like that myself. It's better that you'll have it" Casey answered. "Thank you" April said and put the necklace on her. Don looked at them and couldn't help feeling little bit jealous to Casey. Casey had also given April some chocolate, cosmetics and other girl's stuff.

When Don opened his own present he was a little bit surprised too, because he hadn't been expecting anything he would actually wanted from Casey. "These books… I really wanted to get them" Don said puzzled. "Really? To be honest I wasn't sure which kind of books you read so I picked the ones I didn't understand at all" Casey replied. "That's Casey Jones for you" Mikey laughed.

April noticed that the Christmas party really had lightened up the mood. "I'm also very satisfied with the gift I received, thank you mister Jones" Master Splinter said holding a tea can. "Raph, aren't you going to open yours?" Casey asked looking at Raph.

"Uh.. Yeah…" Raph answered and opened the package. "Motorcycle magazines… Thanks…" Raph said and opened the magazine, then closed it quickly and stared at Casey like asking: "Casey, just what the heck man?" "You're welcome" Casey said grinning.

"Um, I have one for Leo too but… Let's give it to him after he wakes up" Casey said holding Leo's gift. "If he wakes up" Raph thought. After a short pause, Raph realized that the others were staring at him. He had accidentally said out loud something he shouldn't had. "Sorry, I need some fresh air" Raph said and got out. "Hey Raph, how about the food?" Casey shouted after him. "Let him be" Don said.

Raph spent almost the whole day wandering around outside. When it started to get dark, he returned back inside. The living room was dark and quiet. Leo was sleeping peacefully on the couch. "Hi Leo" Raph whispered and sat on the floor, leaning his back on the couch.

"Remember when we were kids? The Christmas was the most waited day of the year. It was even better than our birthdays. Master Splinter would give us presents. Only one per person though, but those things were usually the ones we had really wished for… The food was better than usual and we even got candy…" Raph said quietly.

"Mikey always ate all the candy right away. Then, he would go trying to beg some from us. You usually gave him few, even though he really didn't deserve those… I used to get mad for you spoiling him too much" Raph told. "Uh, this sure feels stupid, it's almost like I'm talking to myself…. And I just keep telling you some nonsense instead of stuff I really wanted to say…." Raph said.

"I always thought you were bossy and annoying. And that we could do just fine without you bossing us around. But lately I've realized how much you were watching over us and right now, I would give anything to go back on those days. Well, there's not much to give away anymore…" Raph said.

"I always thought that I was the strongest. But when I thought that you might die I… I just couldn't take it…. I gave up on you" Raph said and started crying; "I always had teased Don for being weaker than me. But when you got hurt, he seemed to be the only one who didn't lose his hope. He believed that you would heal and wake up. As for me I… Leo I… I'm sorry… Even now, I don't think you will wake up. Sometimes I think it's even better that you don't so you wouldn't have to face the reality" Raph sobbed.

"I thought that I should return back the New York and have revenge on the Shredder. But I can't leave you all here. Because with you gone, there wouldn't be anyone to protect them. Protect you… I hate this… To be forced to stay here, able to do nothing…" Raph said.

"Even though I always tried to act strong and fearless, inside I've been always weak. I get emotional over small stuff and try to hide my tears because I'm ashamed of them. If I really were strong, I wouldn't need to keep them inside…" Raph said.

Raph stayed quiet for a little while. "I talked too much" he said. "I really hope that you didn't hear any of that. It's wrong to come here to bitch to you when you must be the most broken one here" Raph stated. "Unlike me, when stuff like this happens, you don't blame the others. You always keep blaming yourself, even though you tried your best" Raph said.

"Like that time when we were kids and I tried to run away from home again. Everything you ordered me not to do… That was exactly what I did. You told me not to go that part of the sewers because Master Splinter had told us not to go there.

I didn't listen to you. I went there anyways. When you told me not to step on that pipe, I walked on it ignoring your bossing. They pipe fell down and I with it. I got hurt, badly. If you hadn't been there and carried me home, I wouldn't be here now. And still, you kept blaming yourself for what happened even though it was all because of my own stubbornness…" Raph told.

He was getting really sleepy and closed his eyes. "You did what you could. You were the hero back there… I've hate to admit it but… I did look up to you. No matter how much stronger I was physically, how much braver I was, you still had something that I didn't. You and Sensei… You were my heroes" Raph whispered before falling asleep.

Leo opened his eyes. He got up quietly and covered his sleeping little brother with the blanket that was on him and walked to the window. Leo kept looking out for a short while before he started walking around the house. He opened doors and saw the sleeping people. When he opened the room where Mikey, Don and Raph were staying he found Don there still awake.

"Leo… You… Mikey, wake up, it's Leo!" Don shouted shaking Mikey awake. "What…?" Mikey asked. "Um, hi" Leo said. When Mikey saw Leo, a bright smile appeared on his face. "Leo! You're okay!" Mikey shouted and rushed to hug Leo.

"Ouch… Mikey, easy there, the wounds aren't fully healed yet" Leo said. "Oh yeah, right, sorry" Mikey replied and let Leo go. "You don't know how worried we were… I… Never mind, I'm just glad that you're okay now!" Don shouted and cried a little.

"What is this all ruckus about…?" Casey asked coming in the room. April and Splinter were following him. "What? Leo! You're okay!" Casey shouted merrily. "April… I'm sorry about your home…" Leo said regretting. "What? No, you shouldn't be. It wasn't your fault. I… It's good to have you back" April said and hugged Leo. "Yes, it's good to have you back my son" Master Splinter said.

Raph woke up because the noises. He realized that somebody had put a blanket on him and when he turned around he could see that Leo was gone. Raph quickly got up and run upstairs. There he could see Leo, standing surrounded by their family.

"Leo…" Raph said quietly. His eyes started to get wet. "Raph" Leo said smiling a little. "I am not dreaming, am I? Is it… Really you?" Raph asked slowly walking towards Leo. "Yeah, it's me. Sorry to make you worried" Leo said. Raph needed to touch Leo just to make sure that he really was there.

After Raph was convinced that this all really was the reality, covered his eyes with his hand and started crying. Leo hugged him, placing one hand on Raph's head and said: "It's going to be okay from now on… I promise" Raph couldn't say anything, he just kept crying.

Leo had woken up, but his injuries were still rather bad. And Leo wasn't really acting like himself. Even though nobody was blaming him, he still felt like he was the fault. Because of his carelessness, April had lost her home and they had to run away from New York.

"If I stay as weak as I am now, I can't protect anyone…" Leo thought practicing fencing with a stick. "If I could transform like Kenji did then I… No, I mustn't think about that. I mustn't rely on some unknown, dangerous power. There must be another way to get stronger" Leo thought and clashed the stick against a tree. The stick broke.

Something else had also been bothering Leo. Their master. If the Shredder was telling him the truth about being their biological father then… Why Splinter had never told them anything about that. Why their sensei kept hiding things from them?

Leo wanted to ask those things from their master but something was stopping him. Leo wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the answers because his whole world might get upside down, again. Right now, he wasn't ready to lose any more than he already had.

After Leo had woken up, Mikey started to return back to his old self. He had become more cheerful and started to slack off again. And complain how they needed a working television. Don had stayed pretty much the same, still trying to fix anything he could get his hands on.

The biggest change was April. After Leo got better April had regained her strength and went to find a job for herself. She got a place from a diner. The work didn't have a good salary but April liked her job. Working and being in touch with other people seemed to make her forget her worries.

Even though Leo was better now, Raph still kept staying up at the nights, guarding the house. But he slept more, usually during the day when the others were awake. Raph didn't drink coffee anymore. Don had forced him to quit it because coffee over-dose was clearly making him sick and was the main reason for his insomnia.

The time passed but nobody didn't even mention about going back home New York. Because Leo still seemed a little bit out of it, Raph let it be, at least for while. But he knew that they couldn't avoid that issue forever and was waiting the right moment for it. And one early spring day that moment finally came.


	12. Chapter 12: Sticks and Stone

Chapter 12: Sticks and Stone

"Hey guys! I got some leftover pizza from work!" April said entering the house and placed the pizza boxes on the kitchen's table. "All right! " Mikey rejoiced and grabbed the nearest pizza box. "You should warm them first, they're already cold" April told. Mikey piled pizza on his plate.

"Hey, save some for the others too" Raph snapped and hurried to get his share. "The early bird catches the worm" Mikey showed off. "Well, the other guys will make you to eat worms if you don't leave anything to them" Raph said. "Where are the others?" April asked.

"Casey went to run some errands and Master Splinter is meditating upstairs. Leo is training somewhere and Don is trying to fix Casey's Grandma's old car" Raph replied. "The car that crashed in the barn?" April asked. "You mean the car RAPH crashed against the barn's wall?" Mikey jeered. "Hey, it was slippery and that shit wasn't working properly. I wasn't able to brake" Raph defended.

"I'll go to get Leo and Don" April said heading towards the door. "I wouldn't bother, they'll come when they get hungry..." Mikey said. "I'll make sure that Mikey leaves something for them, don't worry" Raph added snatching away pizza pieces from Mikey's plate.

Two men were walking in the forest near the farmhouse where April and the others were staying. One of the men was tall and skinny, with short black hair and moustache. The other one was a little bit shorter, brawny bald man.

"Are you sure this is the right place Sticks?" the bald guy asked. "Yeah Stone, I'm sure. That abandoned farmhouse isn't far from here" the tall man answered tramping in thick snow. Soon the pair reached a frozen pond.

"See, what I told you? It's right there!" Sticks said pointing out the old farmhouse that could be seen on the other side of the pond. "There are people outside" Stone replied staring across the pond. "What? But that house should've been abandoned!" Sticks shouted. "I wonder if they have found our loot" Stone said.

"Of course they haven't. I hid it well. Don't worry, the game's not over yet. We just need to get there and get the swag without them noticing" Sticks stated. "But how?" Stone asked. "We need to get them out of the house" Sticks replied. "And how are we going to do that?" Stone asked. "I have an idea" Sticks said.

Somebody rang the doorbell. April went to open the door and could find an unfamiliar man behind it. "May I help you?" April asked. "Yes, we're from pest control. Your neighbor saw a huge rat going under your house. We suspect it has a nest there" a man with moustache replied.

"Rat? I've never seen rats here" April said. "Well, in that case, I really hope that this is just a false alarm. But the rats can carry even deadly diseases so it's better to make things sure first. I'm sure that you don't want your family to get sick, do you? Don't worry, the inspection will take only a few minutes" the man said and stepped in without waiting April to invite him in.

The man examined the house and finally got on the floor and put his ear against it. He knocked the planks few time and listened. "Yes, there is indeed a rat nest" the man said standing up. "We should empty the house and poison them" the mustache man told.

"Sorry but I can't let you do that" April said. "What? The rats are a serious health risk, we should take action immediately" the man insisted. "Well, you see… I'm not the owner of this place so I can't make decisions on this kind of matters. You should come again tomorrow" April replied. "Okay, fine, I'll be back tomorrow" the mustache man stated and left, looking a little bit mad.

"That guy was shady, if you ask me" Raph commented. "Yeah. I noticed that too. I'm sure he isn't from a pest control firm. If he were, he had come here by a car" April said. "Maybe he's planning to rob this house?"Mikey suggested. "Why? It's not like there is something worth to steal in here" April answered.

"Well, I like to see them try to break in" Raph said cracking his knuckles. "We should talk about this with the others" Mikey told. "I agree with Mikey" April said. "Okay, I'll go to get them" Raph replied and left. After few minutes, he came back with Don.

"I couldn't find Leo, he must be practicing somewhere in the forest again" Raph told. "So, can you tell what this is all about?" Don asked. April shortly explained him about the man and his examination. Don started examining the floor. He found something and went to get some tools.

Don detached a board and looked in with a flashlight. "I can't believe this…" he said surprised. "What is it?" Mikey asked. Don pulled his hand in and took out a bag. He opened it and the bag's contains were reveled. It was full of money and jewelry.

"Wow. A treasure!" Mikey shouted excited. "No, not a treasure… That guy must have been a thief and this is his loot" Don corrected. "We need to take this to the police" April stated looking at the bag. "Or even better, catch that guy and turn him in too" Raph said spinning his sai.

"April, let's take the bag to the police station" Don told and lifted the bag up. "I can't really be in contact with the police so I need you to talk with them" Don added. "I should go there alone" April said. "No, it's too dangerous. That man might come after you. We need to make sure that you'll be safe" Don argued.

"That's sweet but I'm an adult. I'll be okay" April said and took the bag. "Besides, I'll be going straight to the police station. I bet he won't follow me there" April added. "Fine… But call us if anything happens" Don told. "Okay. I'll be off then" April said and got out. The teenagers followed her out just to make that she could leave there safely.

"I should have gone with her after all" Don sighed when April's car was out of their sight. Raph and Mikey looked at each other and grinned. "No, I didn't want to go with her so we could be just the two of us, I'm seriously worried about her" Don commented after seeing his brothers' reactions. "Because you like her" Mikey teased. "Of course I like her, we're friends" Don replied.

"Yeah, whatever" Raph said with a you-don't-need-to-hide-it-because-we-already-had-that-figured-out-ages-ago expression on his face. "I wonder if that guy is still around" Mikey said. "If he's around we should be able to find him" Raph replied. "If you find him, don't attack, just spy him… Of course, if he attacks you, that's a completely different story" Don said.

"And if somebody finds Leo we should tell him about this" Raph added. "Well, I think it' more possible to run to that thief guy than find Leo" Mikey laughed. "Be careful, both of you. He might have a crime partner" Don said. "Don't worry, I'll come to save you if you run in to trouble" Raph smirked.

"How did it go?" Stone inquired. "Not too well… We need to use plan B" Sticks replied. "We had a plan B?" Stone wondered. "Yes. When they are asleep, we sneak under the house, get the sack and run away" Sticks told.

"But what we're going to do in the meantime? We can't just wait here the whole day. It's cold and my socks are wet" Stone complained. "Let's return the city center and come back later" Sticks replied. "But we don't have any money" Stone said. "You idiot! Did you forget who I am? The master thief Sticks! The money won't be a problem!" Sticks claimed.

The two criminals didn't realize that they were being watched. Leonardo, who had been in the forest training this whole day, had spotted two weird guys a while ago. "Those guys must be wanted criminals. What should I do? Catch them? They seem like easy opponents even without my weapons but… What if I'm mistaken? What if I fail again..? I think I should discuss about this with the others first" Leo thought and headed back the farmhouse. But when he got back the house was empty.

"Where is everybody?" Leo asked. He went upstairs and found Master Splinter there, meditating. "I wonder if I should bother him… To think of it, I haven't been talking with him at all lately" Leo thought. "What is it my son?" Master Splinter asked his eyes still closed.

"It's… Nothing, sorry that I disturbed you" Leo replied and closed the door. "Guys will be back soon, I should just wait them here" Leo thought. He saw pizza on the kitchen's table. Leo took few slices and reheated them.

"Not a sight of that guy" Raph said when he met up with Don and Mikey. "Same here" Mikey said. "Well, he'll be back. Let's wait for him to make his move" Don stated. When they returned home they were a little bit surprised when they found Leo there.

"Guys, we need to talk" Leo said. "Yeah sure we do. Listen, there's some weird guy, probably a criminal after some stolen valuables we found under the floor. April went to take goods to the police. We tried to find the guy but he's gone" Raph explained.

Leo told them about two men he saw in the forest. "And you just let them go?! Way to go Leo!" Raph shouted. "Raph, Leo didn't know…" Don started but Raph interrupted him with: "Well maybe he didn't but that's no excuse! He could have still caught them!" Raph yelled. "Let's not think what we could have done, let's think what we'll do next" Don stated.

"They said they'll come back at night when we're sleeping. We have more than enough time to set them a trap" Leo said. "A trap? Are we going to dig a hole and cover it and when they try to get in, they'll fall in the trap hole and then we'll call the police?" Mikey asked "What I had in mind is… A little bit different kind of trap" Leo said.

"The police sure wanted to know much" April sighed when she got out the police station. April turned her phone on and noticed that she had few unanswered calls from her boss. April called him and the boss told her that because of some kind of spring cold, many people were absent and they needed somebody do the evening shift. April promised that she would be there.

"The evening shift starts in an hour. It's no sense to drive home and then back here" April thought and called Don. "Is something wrong?" Don asked. "No, everything is fine. The police said that they need to come over tomorrow but before that… My boss called me. I'll be doing an evening shift so I'll be home late" April told. "April we…" Don started but April's phone's battery ran out. "I should have recharged it before leaving … Oh well, I can do that at work" April thought.

It started to get dark. The teenagers were at their positions, waiting for the criminals to show up. Finally, a car showed up in the yard and somebody came out. Raph quickly jumped down and knocked the guy down. "Well, nice to see you too Raph" Casey said. "It was only Casey…" Raph said a little bit pissed off and let Casey go.

"Only me? Dude, what's going on here?" Casey asked puzzled. "Nothing, go to sleep, we'll handle this" Raph replied. "Nothing? You attacked on me and say it's nothing?!" Casey yelled. "I guess it's better tell him everything" Don told coming out from his hideout. They briefly explained the situation to Casey.

"Count me in" Casey said joyfully. "I guess you won't take no for an answer" Leo replied. "Okay, Casey, you're with Raph" Leo ordered. "Why I should stick with him?" Raph asked. "Well thanks pal" Casey stated. "Because I say so. Get back on your positions" Leo replied.

After they had waited over an hour, Casey started to get sick of waiting. "Why aren't they here yet?" Casey complained. "Maybe your reek drove them off. Now shut up or you blew our cover" Raph said. He and Casey were lying on the roof, waiting for the men show up.

"Aren't you cold?" Casey asked shaking. "No, I'm used to this already" Raph replied shortly. Somebody drove in the yard with their headlights off. "That's them, let's attack" Casey said. "Wait… They haven't even left the car yet. If you don't stick with the plan, I knock you out" Raph said.

Only one guy got out. The guy walked around a corner and removed some tiles to get under the house. After he was inside, they were supposed to shut him in and take care of the other guy.

Suddenly, they could hear another car getting closer. April was coming back from work. "April is back… We need to act fast" Raph said, jumped down and kicked the guy inside and then blocked the entrance. "Casey, keep him in, I'll get the other one" Raph ordered.

Leo and Mikey were already checking the car. "There's nobody in" Mikey said. "The other guy must be somewhere near! Let's go to find him" Leo ordered. "Casey and Don, you stay here to watch the first guy. Mikey, when April gets here, get her safe. Raph, you and me are going to search for the other guy" Leo added.

They headed towards the forest, Raph took the left side and Leo the right side. Mikey waited for April. When the van came in the yard, Mikey noticed that April wasn't alone. "GUYS! GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS! I FOUND THE OTHER GUY! BUT BAD NEWS IS THAT HE HAS APRIL!" Mikey shouted.

"None of you moves!" a guy who came out the car shouted, holding a knife on April's throat. Raph and Leo were hiding. "We'll take what we came here for and then leave. We won't hurt you if you do as we say" the man threatened.

"Stone! Is that you!" the man trapped under the house yelled. "Sticks! Where are you?!" Stone shouted. "Under the building… They've trapped me here!" Sticks answered. "Let him free!" Stone ordered. Casey glared at Stone murderously but let Sticks go.

"Sticks, where's the bag?" Stone asked. "It wasn't there" Sticks replied. "You! Where is it?" Stone yelled. "Not here. We took it to the police station" Don replied. "You are lying! You must still have it!" Sticks shouted. "Are these guys idiots or something?" Mikey asked. "We want our money or the girl is going to get hurt!" Sticks shouted.

"You heard that?" Raph whispered. "Yeah… They believe we still have their stuff… Wait, that's it. I have a plan" Leo answered. "Raph, go inside and get some kind of bag there. Get the bag on the pond and then hide near, I'll handle the rest" Leo said. "Not sure what you are trying to do but oh well…" Raph replied and left.

After Leo saw Raph getting in without the men noticing, he sneaked nearer the others. When he saw Raph getting out, Leo shouted: "Hey there". Sticks and Stone turned around to see him. "Another one?" Sticks asked. "Don't get closer! Or else we hurt the girl!" Stone yelled.

"I won't… I just… We give it to you. The bag you were searching for. We hid it in the forest" Leo said. "Get it to us" Sticks said. "It's right there, go to get it" Leo said and pointed at the pond where the bag was lying on the ice. "Let's go Stone. You guys! Stay still!" Sticks ordered. Leo who was going to follow them stopped.

"Won't you let April go? You can take me as a hostage instead" Leo asked. "No, the girl comes with us. If you try something funny, we'll kill her" Sticks said. "Leo, I hope you have a plan" Don said. "Don't worry, I do" Leo assured. "Though I'm not sure how well it'll work …" Leo thought.

"Just what the heck is Leo's plan?" Raph thought spying on the guys stepping on the ice. The guy who was holding April fell. "Okay, that must be my cue" Raph thought and jumped out, attacking Stone, whose leg had gone through the ice. "April, run!" Raph shouted. April did as she was told but she also became a victim of the thin ice. Sticks was able to get to her when Raph was fighting against Stone.

Leo, Mikey and Don had reached the pond. "April, hang in there!" Don shouted. "Wait, we all shouldn't get there!" Leo yelled but Don and Mikey were already on ice. Suddenly, they heard cracking. "What is this…. STONE! Let's get the bag and run!" Sticks shouted. "Oh no you won't" Raph said and knocked Stone down. He went through the ice. The ice broke and soon they all were underwater.

April was sinking. She was about to lose her consciousness when she felt two pairs of hands pulling her up. "Casey! Take her inside!" Don ordered and gave April to Casey. "You should come too, you'll freeze to death" Casey said. "No, we still need to handle those guys" Don replied shaking. "You know… You guys will do okay even without me…." Mikey said trembling. "I'm sure Leo and Raph will do fine themselves, let's get you warmed up" Casey said carrying April in. Don and Mikey followed them.

Even though they were underwater, Stone still tried to fight Raph. Sticks had dived after the bag, just to find out that it was a fake one. However, Sticks weren't able to get back up. He looked out his partner to save him but Stone was too busy with fighting. But when he was about to lose his consciousness, somebody pulled him up.

"Leo, I called the police!" Casey shouted running back out. "Tie… This guy… Up" Leo panted and shoved the guy to Casey. "I'll go to get Raph and the other guy" Leo said but when he was about to get back down, Raph came up, dragging an unconscious guy with him.

"This guy sure don't know when to give up" Raph commented and threw the guy on the coast. "I'll handle the rest, you guys should go inside to dry yourselves" Casey said. "Okay, we leave it to you" Leo said. He and Raph went in.

"Leo… What kind of plan was that?" shaking Mikey inquired, snuggled inside a blanket. "Well… I can say that thin ice was part of my plan but getting April and you in the water was not" Leo answered. "Well, the plan still worked. April is still alive" Don said. "If she doesn't die from a pneumonia" Mikey mocked.

"The police left" Raph said looking out of the window. Unlike the others, he wasn't wearing a blanket on him. And yet, he wasn't even shaking. "How come he's the only one who doesn't feel cold?" Mikey asked. But he never got an answer.

"The spring is already coming… I think we had been hiding here long enough. Let's go back home and get our revenge on the Shredder" Raph said. "No. We're not strong enough to face him. Not yet" Leo replied. "No, it's only you who's not ready! I've been ready for this whole time! If you don't want to go there, I'll just go alone!" Raph shouted.

Leo stayed quiet. Even though he also wanted to return home and make the Shredder pay for all he had done still… Leo was afraid of losing again. It would be better if they just stayed here, safe. Maybe forever. "Let's wait at least few weeks more" Leo replied. Raph didn't give him an answer.

Next morning, when Leo and others woke up, they realized that Raph was gone. On the kitchen's table, there was a note saying:

"_Sorry guys. I decided to return home, no matter what. And don't worry, I won't take the Shredder on myself….If you really do return after a few weeks that is._

_-Raph" _

"He… Argh, why does he have to be so stubborn?" Leo asked after reading the note. "Should we follow him?" Don asked. "Yes. It's time to return to New York" Leo stated.


	13. Chapter 13: Return to New York

Chapter 13: Return to New York

Raph was lying on the couch, sketching his plan. Suddenly, the front door opened. Raph got up, ready to attack but after seeing his brothers, he put his weapons down. Leo walked to Raph and yelled: "What's wrong with you?! I told you to wait!" "I was waiting. Here" Raph replied coldly.

"Anyways, I have a plan to take the Shredder down. We need to make some preparations first. But in few days, we should be able to attack him" Raph said. "In few days? Aren't you going a little bit too fast?" Leo asked.

"Raphael is right. If we're going to attack the Shredder, we need to act soon, before he notices that we're back" Splinter stated. "So, what's your plan?" Leo asked. After Raph had told them his plan, the others seemed to approve it.

"How come YOU could come up with a plan like that?" Mikey asked. "Well, unlike you, I'm not a total idiot" Raph commented."Oh yeah… April, remember when I told you I might have found out something about those crystals but needed to make it sure?" Don asked. "Yeah, I remember" April said.

"Crystals? The ones we found underground?" Leo asked. "Yes. I think the sword of Tengu was made mixing steel with those crystals. And if there's any way to melt those crystals, we can make more weapons like the sword of Tengu. Then, taking the Foot clan down wouldn't be nearly as impossible that it is now" Don told.

"But even the sword of Tengu can't get through the Shredder's armor" Mikey noted. "It doesn't need to. As long it clears our path to the Shredder, it's more than enough" Leo said. "It's shame that we lost the crystals… And I promised to Quarry and the others to come back with the cure, so it would be rude to go there without one" Don said.

Master Splinter who had been listening their conversation left the room and soon came back holding something. "Is this one of those crystals?" Master Splinter asked handing out a crystal. "That's… How did you get this?" Don asked.

"No, more importantly, doesn't it hurt?" Leo asked. "Maybe it's not one of our crystals" Mikey said and tried to take the crystal but as soon as he touched it, he felt sharp pain and dropped it. "No, definitely one of our crystals" Mikey yelped.

"Come to think about it, master Splinter held the sword of Tengu with his bare hand" Leo said. They all looked at Master Splinter. Master Splinter sighed. "It's true that I can hold them both with my right hand" Master Splinter said. "But my left hand reacts them with the same way as yours do" Master Splinter added.

"There must be a connection between the crystals and the blood of fallen star" Don pondered. After thinking a while he asked: "April, can you pick the crystal up?" "Huh? What are you…?" Mikey started. "Okay, sure" April answered and picked the crystal up.

"It doesn't hurt?" Leo asked. "No" April replied. "How about this?" Don asked bringing her the sword of Tengu. She held it in her hand. "No, should it?" April asked. "Just as I thought…" Don said. "What? What is it?" Mikey inquired.

"It seems that the sword of Tengu really contains those crystals. And those crystals seem to be the weakness of the blood of fallen star. But normal people won't get affected with it" Don said. "Or do they?" Raph said, took a gauntlet and the sword of Tengu and swung it. April was knocked down.

"Raph! What the heck was that for?!" Leo shouted. "Huh? I was just… Crap… Sorry April, I got too excited" Raph apologized. "No, it's okay, I'm not hurt" April replied and got up. "Okay, it seems that the crystals have also power to affect the normal people but still they aren't as weak against them as us" Don said.

"I was going to say that because the Foot is affected by the sword's power they must have the blood of fallen star within them but now I'm not really sure about it. But it is possible" Don told. Leo remembered something but stayed quiet.

"Anyways, I'll try to do more research on the crystals" Don stated and took the crystal with his tongs and went to his research corner to examine them.

It was late night. Master Splinter was meditating in his room. Leonardo carefully opened the door and hesitated a little. "Come in my son" Master Splinter told. Leo walked to his master and sat down in front of him.

"Is there something on your mind?" Splinter asked. "Sensei… When the Shredder attacked me, he told me something… He said that he was our real father. And that all he did to us was for our own good, so we would become superior beings… I… You knew all about this right sensei? " Leo asked.

Splinter sighed. "I knew" he replied. "And I bet those aren't the only things you have been hiding from us?" Leo inquired. "You're right" Master Splinter answered. "I never wanted to hide anything from you but sometimes some things are better left unsaid" Master Splinter said.

"But I was going to tell you everything when you were old enough" Master Splinter added. "Considering everything had happened until now, don't you think it would already time for you to tell us everything?" Leo asked.

"Do you still want to get your revenge on the Shredder?" Splinter asked. "Of course I do! I don't care who he is but after all he has done he… He…" Leo stuttered angrily. "In that case, it would be better if I told you everything only after you had beaten the Shredder" Master Splinter said.

"Why?" Leo asked. "If I told you everything now, you who had time to be prepared for this might be okay with everything I would tell but how about the others?" Master Splinter asked. Leo couldn't answer anything. "Taking the Shredder on won't be a piece of cake. And if you have too much other things in your mind, you won't be able to give your best" Splinter told.

"It's… No… It's as you say…" Leo said. "But after you have defeated the Shredder… Or after you give up on the idea of beating him… Then, I'll tell you everything you want to know. Everything that I know" Master Splinter said.

"I have tried almost everything… Heat won't melt it neither do any chemicals I've tried…." Don thought poking the crystal with his tongs. He heard the television shouting. "Argh, how I'm supposed to concentrate in this noise? Wait… Noise… I wonder if…" Don said and took out a frequency machine.

After a short search, he found the right frequency and the crystal melted. "Alright!" Don rejoiced and took his microscope to see closer the change that had happened in the crystal. "Okay, now that I have them liquefied I need to mix it with steel and…" Don said but then he remembered Quarry and the others.

"What am I doing? I should try to find a cure for Quarry and the others, not to think how to make weapons out of this. But if we don't get back here alive, we won't be able to help them. And even if I'm able to figure out the cure now, I won't be able to go there and get back here fast enough" Don thought.

"I see you are working hard as always" April said and placed a tea cup and a sandwich on Don's table. "April!" Don shouted a little bit startled. "I thought you might be hungry" April said. "Thanks…" Don replied. When April was about to leave, Don thought about something.

"April, wait! There's something I like to ask from you" Don said. "From me?" April asked. "Yes. I made a promise to someone. And if after we fight the Shredder we won't make back here… I want you to take my research notes and the liquefied crystals to somewhere. In an underground city, take Casey with you. I'll draw you a map and precise instruction how to get there. Find a woman called Quarry and give them to her" Don said.

"I… I understand" April replied with a serious tone. "But…"April started. Don became a little bit cautious. "I'm sure that you will be able to go there yourself after you guys have beaten the Shredder" April ended her sentence.

"Ah, sorry…Of course I'll do my everything to come back here in one piece so don't worry. But just in case that something happens to me… The people in the underground city are waiting for us to come back with the cure and I don't want to let their wait to be in vain" Don said.

Finally, the day, or more precisely the night, to fight against the Shredder had come. April was on Don's computer, hacking in the Foot's network. "Last time we tried that it didn't go too well" Mikey said. "Last time, I wasn't here" April replied.

"I'm in... Here's the map of the Shredder's headquarters" April said and showed them the map. "But some of the floors don't have data of them at all. So I can't tell you what is waiting for you in there" April told. "Can you get us in?" Leo asked. "Yes, but getting to the Shredder will be harder. He's on the top of the building" April replied.

"Can't we just go straight to the top?" Mikey asked. "Well, even if we had a way to do that they would notice straight away. It's safer this way" Don explained. "Oh yeah, before we leave, I need to give you something" Don said.

He took out knives with metal scabbards. "I didn't have time to make anything work like the sword of Tengu except they are smaller and I made the handles so that you would be able to hold them without a metal gauntlet. Use them only in emergency situations" Don said. "And don't let the enemy have them" Don added.

"And Raph… I made a new shell cell for you. And one for Master Splinter too" Don said and gave the shell cells. "I guess it's time for the four of us to head out" Leo stated. "No. The five of us" Master Splinter said. "But if you come, there's nobody here to take care of April" Don told.

"I call Casey. I think he would gladly protect April" Raph said. "Yeah, I'm sure he would…" Don thought a little bit jealous. "Casey said he will be here. Let's get out of here before he comes" Raph said. "Okay, let's go!" Leo ordered.

"Master Shredder, there's something weird going on downstairs" Kenji said. "What is it?" the Shredder asked. Kenji put on a video projector showing their surveillance camera footage. A battle van had invade their lobby,

"What is this all about?" the Shredder asked. "I believe it's HC-01 and the ones he calls his brothers, Sir. I've seen that van before" Kenji answered. "It seems like they didn't die on that fire after all" the Shredder said. "Shall I take them down, my lord?" Kenji asked. "Please do so and quickly. They're destroying my lobby" the Shredder told. Kenji bowed and left.

Kenji reached the place where the van was causing ruckus. It was already being attacked by the Foot's security robots and Foot ninjas but didn't seem to go down. "Sigh… Can't you do anything by yourselves?" Kenji asked. "I don't even need to transform for this one" he said and took out something from his pocket. Kenji threw a small time bomb under the van. It exploded and the van was shattered in pieces.

Kenji walked to the van's ruins and threw few pieces of metal walls aside. "They're not here…" he said. "Foot ninjas! We're under attack! Find the intruders and seize them!" Kenji ordered. The Foot ninjas bowed and vanished.

Meanwhile the four teenagers and their master were crawling in a ventilation shaft. "Poor battle van…" Don said. "Success always requires sacrifices or something like that" Raph said. "Geez Raphie, your words of wisdom sure don't lack empathy" Mikey commented sarcastically. "Okay, this is where we get out" Leo said and made a hole in the wall.

"April, stage one complete" Don reported. "Roger that. I'm uploading a worm program… Now…" April's voice in the phone said. "Okay their communication system is down now" April told. "Thanks" Don replied.

The guys had reached a door. To open it, a security code was needed. "April, can you get this door open?" Don asked. "Yeah but getting the code is going to be tricky… They change it hourly…" April replied. "Allow me" Raph said and rushed against the door. The door fell off its hinges.

They had reached a room filled with huge computers. And ninjas. "Step back, I handle this" Master Splinter said and took out the sword of Tengu. It took only few swings to knock the ninjas down. "April, prepare to download remote access codes" Don said sitting behind a computer.

The Foot ninjas started to get up. "I guess the swords power isn't enough to keep them down" Leo noted. "Good, this all would be boring without any real action" Raph replied and attacked the Foot. "I'm finished, let's go" Don declared.

Mikey ran to the door where they had come from. He saw more men coming there from end of the tunnel. With them, there was Kenji. "This way, no good!" Mikey shouted closing the door. "April we need another way out" Don said. "Main ventilation shaft, dock is located in the north-west corner" April replied.

Kenji and his men had reached the computer room. Unconscious Foot ninjas were lying on the ground. "They have reached the security room sir. Our men are down" one of the Foot ninjas reported to the Shredder. "Sir…? No answer… " The Foot ninja said. "They must have taken down our communication system… " Kenji told looking around.

"And seems like they escaped through the ventilation shaft" Kenji added looking at the north-west corner. "Should we follow them in the shaft?" one Foot ninja asked. "No. Few of you, stay here. The rest, come with me" Kenji ordered. "Where are you heading?" a Foot ninja asked. "The weapon developing room. They will be there soon" Kenji replied.

"Wow, the Foot sure has nice toys. Maybe we should have joined them when we still had the chance" Raph joked. "Don't even joke about it" Leo snarled. "They sure do have some cool stuff… I wish I could take this all home and take them apart and…" Don said dreaming. "Guys, stay focused" Leo ordered. "Yeah, right, sorry" Don apologized.

They heard somebody coming in the room. They quickly hid and saw Kenji and his men. "It's empty. Maybe they already proceeded in the next room" a Foot ninja suggested. "No, they're still here. I can sense them" Kenji replied.

"Kenji…" Leo thought glaring at him angrily, though Kenji couldn't see him. "Luckily, I came here prepared" Don whispered and took out a smoke bomb. When the whole room was covered in smoke, Master Splinter knocked the Foot down with the sword of Tengu and they escaped in one of the Foot's aircrafts.

"Um, can any of you pilot this?" Mikey asked. "It can't be that hard" Raph said and pushed buttons randomly. He accidentally launched a missile which blew a hole in the ceiling. The others glared him. "I did that one on purpose" Raph said. He found a lever that took the aircraft in the air. Raph tried to fly through the hole but it was too narrow and the aircraft got stuck.

"Okay, this is our stop" Raph declared and jumped out. "Remind me not to let you drive, fly or even row anything ever again" Mikey said. "What? YOU are mocking my steering skills? Besides, this is the most perfect parking I've ever seen" Raph insisted.

"Yeah, Kenji and the other Foot ninjas need to take a longer route to get here" Leo said. "Guys… Look at that" Don said and pointed out something middle of the room. "What… What are they?" Mikey asked. In the middle of the room, there were huge tanks with something inside of them. Something human shaped.

Few of the tanks contained black skinned red eyed creatures but in three of them, there was… "The Shredder?" Mikey asked. "No… Must be… Some kind of clones…." Leo said looking at the things sleeping inside the tanks. "Failed clones, by look at it" Mikey added.

"Let's proceed" Master Splinter said and headed towards a door. Suddenly, and alarm came off. "What happened?" Don asked. "I swear it wasn't me!" Mikey shouted. The pods containing the Shredder clones opened.

"I wonder if these guys hate us as much as the Shredder does" Mikey wondered. The clones attacked them. "I think so" Don replied, dodged an attack and stroke back. "They aren't as heavily armored as the Shredder" Leo said and hit one of the clones with his sword.

Normally, the sword would have cut through the clone's flesh but in this case, the sword was stopped. The clone's skin had turned pitch black. "Normal weapons are no use!" Leo shouted and took out a knife Don had handed them earlier.

"Okay, knife tag time" Raph said and took out his knife. Master Splinter was fighting against one of the clones all by himself. Raph and Mikey were after the same target, as Leo and Don fought together the beat the remaining one.

"These guys are strong" Mikey said dodging attacks. "Well what did you except? They are Shredder's clones after all!" Raph shouted and tried to hit the clone. "We don't have time for this! Let's get through that door" Leo ordered. "Okay" Don replied and backed up to the door but it was locked. "April, can you open it?" Don asked. "Yes just a sec" April replied.

"Guys, the door is open, let's go!" Don shouted. The others followed him and after they got out, April locked the door. They could hear the clones clashing against the door. "Okay April, where next?" Don asked.

"There are two elevators going up" April replied. "It seems like one that takes you higher level is a hidden one. You should find it at the north end of the corridor" April told. "North end. Roger that" Don said. Don started to examine the wall where the hidden elevator was supposed to be.

"There they are!" a Foot ninja yelled. "Don, hurry up, we've been seen" Mikey told. Leo took out his swords, ready to fight. "I found it!" Don rejoiced when the elevator's doors opened. "Okay, everybody in!" Leo ordered.

When the doors was about to close, a black hand with shining red symbols appeared between the doors. "Yikes! Not creepy at all!" Mikey shouted. Leo quickly stabbed the hand with his knife. They could hear a man screaming. "Everyone, get up!" Leo ordered.

Mikey helped the others to jump to through the hatch on the elevator's ceiling. When others were up, Mikey jumped and the others pulled him up. "Okay everyone, grab on tight this cable" Leo said gripping one of the cables. The others followed his orders.

"Wait… Don't tell me you're planning to…" Don started. They elevator's doors were forced open and Foot ninjas were getting in. "Hang on!" Leo shouted and cut the cable. The elevator started to fall down quickly as they were pulled up with that same speed.

"Be ready, it's about to hit" Leo told. "Wait, what?" Mikey shouted. When the elevator hit the bottom, the cable started to swing like crazy. The teenagers couldn't keep their grip on the cable and flew through the air. Mikey and Leo landed on a pipe, Don on the elevator's entrance and Raph was hanging on the wall, his sais drilled in it.

"Are you okay my sons?" Splinter asked, still hanging on the cable. "Yeah, couldn't be any better" Raph answered. "Let me help you" Don said reaching Raph with his staff. Raph took a grip of it with one hand, plucked his sais out of the wall and got up where Don was.

Raph wrecked the door open with his sais and continued to the next room. The others came right behind him. "April, can you tell us about our current location?" Don asked. "Do you see a floor number?" April asked. Don searched for it. "Seventy-two" he replied after he finally found the number.

"That's weird…" April said. "What?" Don asked. "There's no data of that floor. I'm afraid that you guys are at your own this time" April replied. "This place looks like a dojo" Leo said looking around. "I don't care what it looks like, let's go" Raph said about to walk further in but Master Splinter stopped him.

"What?" Raph asked. "Traps" Master Splinter said. "We must proceed with caution" Master Splinter ordered. He took a short spurt, jumped on the walls and landed on the other side of the corridor. Don followed Master Splinter's footsteps and landed next to him safely.

"Aw c'mon, there's no traps there" Raph said and run across the corridor, launching a bunch of traps. But in the end, he was able to get across the room in one piece. Master Splinter and Don were glaring at him.

"Raphael, your rashness will be the end of you yet" Master Splinter scolded. "Hey, I made it didn't I?" Raph replied smirking a little. "But what about your brothers?" Master Splinter asked. "This is like a videogame!" Mikey shouted dodging the traps.

"Haha, I'm the best!" Mikey yelled triumphantly and looked back at all the traps he had avoided. At that moment, a blade swung behind him, cutting a part on his mask away. "Yikes!" Mikey shouted and hurried to Raph and the others.

"Um, short headbands are in this season" Mikey said grinning. The others looked at him with stern faces. "All stylish ninjas wear them" Mikey added proudly. Nobody even bothered to answer. When Mikey turned around he saw Leo behind him, glaring at Mikey.

"Argh! Leo, you startled me!" Mikey shouted. "Sneaking behind me like that are you a ni… Oh, wait, never mind" Mikey said. "Mikey, this is no game, you can't keep fooling around like this!" Leo scolded Mikey. "Well excuse me…" Mikey replied.

Leo opened a door and walked through it. He was in a room, covered with thick mist. "What is this place?" Leo asked. "Their greenroom maybe?" Mikey suggested. "Do you see any plants here?" Raph asked. "Um, no?" Mikey replied.

Leo walked further in and saw somebody standing in the mist. "Guys, we're not alone!" Leo said. The others got cautious but when they got closer, they realized that it was just a statue. Mikey and Raph burst in laughter, while Don was trying politely to hold it back. "Leo… We need to get you some glasses" Mikey laughed.

"I sensed a presence" Leo said. "I'm afraid that this stress is taking best of our older brother" Raph whispered to Mikey. Suddenly, shurikens came out nowhere, attacking them. They dodged them and Leo tried to find out their source but the mist was too thick.

"Okay, maybe there is someone besides us here" Mikey admitted. "You don't say?" Raph replied. Somebody quickly jumped middle of them and kicked them all down. "My sons!" Master Splinter shouted and hurried to them, holding the sword of Tengu. He swung the sword towards the attacker. They could see a black skinned red eyed and haired creature dodging Splinter's attacks

"Urgh, what is that?" Don asked trying to get up. "It's Kenji" Leo answered. "Who?" Mikey asked. "I think he's one of the Shredder's captains or something like that" Leo replied. "We need to help Master Splinter" Raph said.

"Wait, it's better not to get close. Because of the sword's power, every time Master Splinter swings it, it'll cause a force that can knock us down" Don said. "What, we are just supposed to wait and watch?" Raph asked. "No, instead, try to find a way up" Leo ordered.

"You are a lot stronger and faster than the last time we fought" Splinter said. Kenji remained silent and just kept attacking furiously Master Splinter. "But I sense something dark that wasn't there before" Splinter said attacking back. Kenji blocked Splinter's attack with his sword and quickly counter-attacked. His attack cut through Splinter's clothes but the wound he made wasn't very deep.

"Master Splinter!" boys shouted. "Don't worry my sons, I have this!" Master Splinter replied. He swung his sword, causing a force wave. Kenji dodged it but Master Splinter was already charging at him. It seemed like the battle wasn't going to end anytime soon.

"I found an elevator!" Don rejoiced. "Master Splinter! Let's go!" Leo shouted. But it seemed like there was no escape from Kenji. "Okay, I'm going to help him! Mikey, borrow your knife!" Raph shouted and took his own knife on one hand and Mikey on the other one. Then, he charged at Kenji.

Kenji noticed Raph and blocked his attack. Master Splinter used this opportunity to hit Kenji. But Kenji sensed him coming and quickly dodged. A shockwave caused by the missed hit knocked Raph down. Kenji kicked Raph away and continued fighting against Splinter.

"Raph, are you okay?" Don asked. "That little piece of shit…" Raph swore forcing himself up. "I'll show him…" Raph said. "Raph, I hate to say this but… You would just get in Sensei's way" Leo told. "Well then you should do something, oh the fearless leader" Raph snapped back.

Kenji got another hit on Master Splinter. "Are you just going to stand there and watch Sensei getting hurt?" Raph yelled. "I trust him. He can beat Kenji" Leo replied. "Leo, even sensei is just a man. He needs help!" Raph insisted. "You're just too scared to help him!" Raph shouted.

"Raph… That's enough" Don said grapping Raph's arm. "Leo wants to help him as much you do" Don said quietly. Raph looked at Leo and could see from his face that Leo really was holding himself back. "Fine… But if he gets knocked down, I'm rushing there" Raph said.

The second cut Kenji had made was deeper that the first one. The loss of blood had made Master Splinter dizzy and he started to lose attacking power. But it seemed like Kenji was getting tired too. He had become more careless and few of Master Splinter's hits had reached him.

Kenji decided to finish it all fast and attacked on Splinter with all his force. Instead of blocking, Splinter dodged the attack and stabbed the sword trough Kenji's right shoulder. Kenji screamed from pain and returned his normal form while falling on his knees.

"Quickly, let's escape!" Splinter shouted. They all headed inside the elevator. When Splinter was about to get in, he felt a stab on his back. He fell on the elevator's floor. Before closing the door, they could see Kenji, his hand still at a throwing position.

"Master Splinter are you okay?" Leo asked worriedly, removing the kunai on Splinter's back. "Yes" Master Splinter replied and sat on the elevator's floor, leaning his back against the wall. "Good thing I have some first aid supplies with me" Don said and started patching Master Splinter up.

The elevator had reached its last stop. "I wonder where it got us…" Mikey said. The doors opened and they could see a huge Japanese style hall. "This must be it" Don stated. "The Shredder can't be far away" he added.

"I can't see him" Mikey said. "Let's continue" Leo ordered. They walked further in. Suddenly, somebody attacked Leo. He dodged and turned to see the attacker. "The Shredder's elite guard…" Leo said. "I kinda figured out that we would run at them at some point…" Raph said taking his sais out.

"Well, he won't be as tough without his little friends" Mikey laughed. Soon, the other three appeared. "You were saying?" Raph asked. "Um, at least it's still five against four" Mikey replied. A door behind them was opened.

"It was… A mistake… To not finish me…" Kenji mumbled staggering towards them. "Okay, I really need to keep my mouth shut" Mikey admitted. "For once… I agree with you Mikey" Raph replied. "My sons, you deal with the Shredder's elite guard. I'll take care of him" Master Splinter told.

"But sensei, you're hurt!" Leo said. "So is he. We need to bring our battle in a conclusion" Master Splinter replied. Leo didn't have time to say anything back because he got attack by one of the elite guards. Leo blocked the attack with his swords. Another one tried to attack him from behind but Raph blocked this one's attack. Soon, they all were fighting against the elite guards.

Even though Master Splinter wasn't in a perfect fighting fit, he still wasn't as bad shape as Kenji. The young man looked like he could collapse at any moment. Even though Splinter knew he shouldn't have, he was holding back.

"Why are you…Hesitating…To… Attack…When I'm… Trying…To kill…You?" Kenji asked clashing his sword to Splinter who blocked his attacks with the sword of Tengu. "Because you remind me of my sons" Splinter confessed.

"Don't be… Ridiculous…Those aren't… Even… Yours….Not… Really…" Kenji panted. "It's true that we aren't blood related but that's not what matters. We love and trust each other, that is what makes us a family" Splinter told.

"You just…. Stole somebody else's… Family members away… To make your own… Family…." Kenji replied. Master Splinter's concentration slipped for a moment. Kenji used that chance to kick Master Splinter down. "You brainwashed them… To love you… To hate their… Real father…." Kenji said.

Raph was fighting near Splinter and Kenji and could hear some parts of their conversation but didn't really pay attention to it because Kenji seemed to mumbling some nonsense. Besides, he had his hands full with the elite guard.

Even though Raph was able to hit the elite guard few times, he didn't seem really to be affected by Raph's attacks. "Maybe Don's knives affect him" Raph thought and switched one sai to a knife. But they didn't cause much a change. And unlike the sword of Tengu, the knife didn't cause a shockwave big enough to affect the elite guards.

"I wonder if we really can beat the Shredder… We can't even beat these guys…" Don thought. For a while now, he had been only dodging the attacks. "I need to think a better strategy… And fast…" Don thought gazing around his surroundings.

"Wow, dude, chill out, can't we just talk this over?" Mikey asked dodging the elite guard's attacks. "Well, considering that we are here to kill your Master… Maybe talking wouldn't help" Mikey said. The elite guard kept ignoring Mikey's words and continued attacking brutally.

"I can do this" Leo thought and tried to clash his swords at the elite guard who get blocking his attacks. "Just a little bit more" Leo thought and tried to push himself over his limits. Suddenly, a voice shouted: "Enough!"

The Foot soldiers stopped and backed off to bow their master. Shredder walked to Kenji and raised his chin. "Who did this to you?" the Shredder asked. "I'm sorry… For not being… Able to… Take care of your… Enemy…" Kenji panted. "That's not what I asked" the Shredder said, cutting a wound on Kenji's cheek with his gauntlet's razor.

Kenji looked at Splinter. "I should have known that" the Shredder said. The teenagers tried to cover Master Splinter. "I'll be the one to kill Hamato Yoshi. And as for his so called sons… They are all yours" the Shredder claimed.

"Don't worry Master Splinter, we won't let him have you" Raph said. "Yeah, no matter what happens, were in this together!" Leo shouted. "I might not have a chance to say this later so… It was nice to know you all…" Mikey said. "I was just about to say the same" Don said. "Let's not say goodbyes, not just yet" Raph told.

The elite soldiers attacked them once more. Kenji was trying to continue the fight too, but was stopped by the Shredder saying: "You should retreat. After all, I need you to stay alive to fulfill your true mission" "I understand" Kenji replied and left.

The teenagers stayed in a formation to protect their master. Whether it was the formation or their will to protect that caused their victory, the Foot Elite who seemed like unbeatable enemies, were knocked down. "Now it's your turn!" Leo claimed, pointing his sword at the Shredder.

"It sure is" the Shredder said. The four teenagers attacked him all four at the same time. The Shredder kicked them and the teenagers flew through the air. Leo and Raph hit walls, Mikey and Don landed on the floor.

The Shredder laid his eyes on Mikey, who was the closest to him. The Shredder jumped and was ready to deliver a lethal hit on Mikey, who was still lying helplessly on the floor. But Shredder's claws never reached the boy. He was stopped by the sword of Tengu.

"Keep your hands off my son!" Splinter shouted. "Your son?" the Shredder laughed. Splinter was able to push the Shredder away from Mikey. "Fine, I'll finish them later. First, I need to get rid of you!" the Shredder shouted and kicked Splinter.

Splinter flew straight through the window, just few feet away from Leo. Leo took a rope with a hook, threw the hook over the window and jumped after Splinter. It must have been a miracle that Leo was able to catch his master. He swung top of a building near the Shredder's office.

Leo laid Master Splinter against the wall. Master Splinter was breathing heavily, eyes half closed. "Master Splinter, hang in there… I'll get the others, and then we'll get you some help…" Leo said. "No… Don't worry about me… You need to… Return to the others… Protect your brothers and… Take the Shredder down… Take the sword…And remember, I'm always with you…" Master Splinter panted.

"Master Splinter I…I…" Leo staggered. "GO! I'll wait you here…" Master Splinter ordered. Leo took the sword of Tengu. "I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise…Just… Hang on until I get back here" Leo told and rushed back in the battle field.

Splinter fell through the window and Leo followed him. "No… You… YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" Raph shouted and rushed against the Shredder. They both fell through a glass door, leading in a roof garden. Mikey and Don followed them.

The Shredder threw Raph away and got up. Mikey and Don attacked him but were knocked down as well. "You shit head…. " Raph swore and threw rocks at the Shredder. The Shredder looked at him and laughed.

"You won't be winning me by throwing rocks at me" the Shredder said amused. Raph stood up and attacked the Shredder but the Shredder simply grabbed his head and lifted Raph in the air. Raph glared the Shredder. "I like your eyes. They're so full of hatred" the Shredder said.

"You shouldn't really be hitting Raph at a moment like this" somebody said jumping and the Shredder. Mikey had jumped at him and stabbed his knife through a gap in the Shredders armor. The Shredder shouted from pain and dropped Raph.

Don used the situation to knock the Shredder down. But when they were about to approach the Shredder, an army of Foot ninjas attacked them. "Don't care about them, just try to get to the Shredder!" Don shouted.

"Well it's hard not to care about them when… They are trying to cut your head off" Mikey replied fighting against the Foot ninjas. "The Shredder will get away…" Don said looking at the Shredder. Suddenly, they all were knocked down by a shockwave.

The teenagers turned their heads and saw their eldest brother standing near the door, holding the sword of Tengu. "Leo…" Don said. "Well thank you for knocking us down too!" Raph shouted. "Shredder… It's over for you!" Leo shouted pointing the sword at the Shredder.

"Oh?" the Shredder said with a mocking tone. Leo was holding the sword of Tengu with his bare hands and the sword was draining his power away. "There's no armor on his neck!" Mikey shouted. "What?" Don asked.

Mikey was right. There was a small area between Shredder's helmet and the armor which was only covered with fabric. That area would be hard to reach but if Leo hit there, the Shredder would be finished for sure.

Leo hurried to the Shredder. The Foot ninjas were getting up, as well as the three other brothers. While the other guys fought against the Foot ninjas, Leo engaged in a battle with the Shredder. "You seem tired" the Shredder said. "It must be that sword, want me to hold it for you?" the Shredder added clashing the sword of Tengu away from Leo.

"Haha, without that sword, there's no way you can defeat me" the Shredder laughed. Leo took out his own swords. "No! I don't need it to defeat you!" Leo yelled. He clashed his swords at the Shredder. The Shredder kept blocking Leo's attacks and then all sudden, he grabbed Leo's swords and threw the boy through the air.

The Shedder was getting closer to Leo who was laying his back against the ground, seemingly defeated. He was going to finish Leo with Leo's own swords. The Shredder knelt down over Leo, pushing him against the ground."Any last words?" the Shredder asked, his eyes only few inches away from Leo's.

Leo stayed calm. Suddenly, the Shredder dropped his weapons. The Shredder's whole body fell on Leo. Leo crawled off under the Shredder and turned the guy around. "The Shredder… Is he dead?" Mikey asked, getting closer to Leo and the armored man.

"I think so" Leo replied. When the Shredder got on him, Leo had stabbed him in the throat with Don's knife. Leo took the Shredder's helmet off and could see Oroku Saki's face. His eyes and mouth were still open but they didn't move. Leo checked the Shredder's pulse but it was gone. "He's dead… Finally…" Leo sighed.

"Guys, were not done yet!" Raph shouted. He and Don were still fighting against the Foot. "Sorry let's…" Leo started but his vision went black and he fell on the ground. "Leo! What happened?" Mikey shouted and lifted Leo up.

"It must be because of the sword… He shouldn't have held it with his bare hands, it drained his energy away!" Don shouted. "Mikey, get Leo out of here!" Raph ordered. "But…" Mikey insisted. "JUST GO!" Raph shouted.

Mikey used a rope to get in the nearest rooftop. He laid Leo down, looked around and was about to go back but Raph and Don had followed Mikey. "Let's get away from here, quickly!" Raph shouted grabbing Leo.

They heard a loud explosion coming from the Foot building. "Wait, what about Master Splinter?" Mikey asked. "Leo, wake up!" Raph shouted shaking Leo. "Uh… What…?"`Leo asked. "Leo, we need to know where Master Splinter is!" Don shouted.

Leo opened his eyes. "Master Splinter! I… I told to him to wait at the top of a building it's… " Leo started and when he had looked around he added: "It's this rooftop… Master Splinter… Where is he?" Leo asked. "I think you have a wrong rooftop pal" Mikey said.

"Maybe not, look" Don said pointing out the wall. There was bloodstains all over it and on the floor near to it was lying something. A walking stick. "It's Master Splinter's" Leo said. Don picked the walking stick up.

They could hear police sirens. "Anyways, we need to go now!" Raph shouted. "But Master Splinter… He can't be far… We need to find him…" Leo staggered. "We'll come back for him later but right now, we need to run!" Doh shouted.

"But…" Leo insisted. "Leo, if you keep struggling, I'll might really drop you down" Raph told. The teenagers escaped and at home, they met with April and Casey. Raph laid Leo down on the couch.

"Is Leo okay?" April asked. "Yeah, he just used too much energy" Don said. "So how did it go?" Casey asked. "We defeated the Shredder but…" Don started. "Master Splinter… We couldn't find him…" Don said. "Are you saying he's….?" April asked. "NO! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT! HE'S OUT THERE, I'M SURE OF IT AND I'M GOING TO FIND HIM! " Raph yelled and was about to leave.

"Wait, Raph, it's not safe to go there yet! The police are still there and you need to rest!" Don shouted. "I need no rest…" Raph argued. Casey grabbed Raph's arms so that he couldn't fight back. "Sorry pal, your brother is right, you can't go there yet" Casey told. Raph gave up. "Okay but in the morning, the first thing I'm going to do is to go after him" Raph replied. "We'll all go" Don said.

Meanwhile, in Japan a young woman with pitch black hair and beautiful green eyes was sitting behind a small table, writing something. She was wearing a crimson kimono, decorated with black flowers. On her belt, there was the Foot's emblem.

A door behind her was opened. The young woman turned around to see the person who opened the door. She quickly got up and bowed a little. "It's rare to see you awake, my dear father" the woman said. "Karai, I need a helicopter" the man told. "I understand father, I'll take care of it" the young woman replied and left the room.


	14. Chapter 14: Lost

Chapter 14: Lost

Raph was kicking his punching bag frustrated. The bag couldn't take all the pressure it was put under and broke. "Okay that's it…" Raph mumbled angrily. "How can you guys sit here talking when Master Splinter is out there somewhere, hurt, waiting us to find him?!" Raph shouted.

"We have been looking for him. We have searched the whole area but there weren't any clues of him. He could be anywhere. We need to come up with a better strategy to find him" Leo said. "I'll go there alone" Raph said.

"Raph, wait, we…" Don started. "Go" Leo said. "Leo what…?" Don asked. "It's no use to keep him down here. Besides, there's a chance that he might actually find something… Raph, call us if you find anything" Leo said. "Sure, I'm off" Raph said and left.

Raph was running on the rooftops, searching for Master Splinter from dark alleys but so far, he hadn't spotted even a slightest sign of the man. Suddenly, he heard loud voices somewhere near. He followed the noise and saw a bunch of guys attacking a girl wearing a motorcycle helmet.

"Okay that doesn't seem too good" Raph thought and jumped down. "Hey guys, it seems like the lady doesn't want to hang out with you, buzz off" Raph said. "Stay out of this!" one of the men shouted. "Leaving damsel in distress isn't my style" Raph replied.

"Let's get rid of him" the man ordered. The other men attacked Raph but he knocked them down. Then, Raph started to get closer the guy who was giving orders earlier. "You… Don't touch me!" the guy shouted backing off and threw something at Raph.

Raph's eyes were burning. "Urgh…What the…" Raph mumbled. He was kicked on the stomach and fell on his knees. The girl who Raph tried to protect had spotted a metal pipe on the ground. She took it and hit the guy with it.

"Quickly, before he wakes up" the girl said, grabbing Raph's hand. They run somewhere and the girl ordered Raph to climb on and grab on her tightly. Then, Raph heard a familiar voice. They were on a motorcycle.

"You shouldn't have come between us" the girl's voice said. "Geez, so much for 'thanks for saving me'" Raph replied. The girl stayed quiet. "So, why are those guys after you?" Raph asked. "They… They're part of a motorcycle gang I used to belong" the girl answered.

"So you left the group and they want to kill you?" Raph asked. "It's hard to talk while driving, I'll tell you later" the girl said. "Later? When is that?" Raph asked. "After I reach my hideout" the girl replied.

When the motorcycle stopped, the girl got off. They were in front of an old house that had been abandoned ages ago. She walked to the door and opened it. "Follow me" the girl told. Raph tried to follow the girl's voice but ended up walking straight in to a wall.

"Uh, the door is this way" the girl said. "Newsflash for you girlie… I can't see" Raph answered sounding a little bit pissed off "Oh… I thought you already got over it…" the girl replied and helped Raph in. She led Raph to sit on an old chair and turned a flashlight on.

"Stay still, I'm going to look in your eyes" the girl said and took Raph's mask off. "Good for you that you were wearing this weird mask… Your eyes weren't damaged as bad as they could've been" the girl said. "But I'm afraid that it might take days before your eyes are healed" she continued.

"What are you, a doctor?" Raph asked. "Pretty close actually. I'm a medical student…Or I was…" the girl replied. "I… Let's get you home, where you live?" the girl asked. "In the sewers" Raph replied. "No, seriously" the girl insisted. "I'm dead serious" Raph replied. The girl sighed.

"Even though I can't really see where we are but figuring out from squeaky boards and the smell of dust and moist… This place has been abandoned for a while now… This isn't your home" Raph said. "It's not, it's just a hideout" the girl told.

"So, care to tell me your story?" Raph asked. "Why would I tell it a blind guy I just met?" the girl asked. "I'm not blind… Well, I guess I'm right now but… Argh, let's make a deal, I tell you something about me so you will tell me your story" Raph suggested.

The girl snickered. "What are you laughing at?" Raph asked. "It's like… Out of some cliché love movie's blind date…" the girl giggled. "Haha, not funny" Raph said adding: "Don't worry, I won't try to hit on you. I don't even know what you look like, you could be ugly as hell"

The girl laughed. "Too bad, I think I'm starting to like you. You're pretty cute" the girl said. "Don't mess with me!" Raph shouted blushing. "Okay, forget I ever asked anything from you I don't want to know after all" Raph claimed and tried to walk out but crashed against the wall next to the door.

"Even if you were able to find the door, how about after?" the girl asked. "If you can't even remember where the door was, you won't be getting back home so easily either" the girl said. Raph hated to admit it but the girl was right.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt… To tell you what this is all about… Besides, I accidentally got you caught in this all…." the girl said but then added: "But you should go first. Who are you and why are you running around at night, dressed up like some ninja and claiming that you live in the sewers?"

"My name is Raphael" Raph started. "That's cute…. I was expecting something… More Asian" the girl commented. "Seriously, quit saying "cute". It annoys me" Raph snapped. "Sorry, somehow I find it amusing when you get mad" the girl laughed.

"Anyways, I'm dressed up like ninja, because I am one. And I really live in the sewers with my family because… Well, we have our reasons. When I found you, I was searching for my Father who's been missing for three days now and… Why there's your hand in my face?" Raph asked.

"No fever…. Either you're on drugs or just simply crazy…." the girl replied. "I'm telling the truth… Argh, women, there's no way to deal with them…" Raph mumbled. "Okay Raphael…" the girl started. "Raph, call me Raph" Raph ordered.

"Do you know where you got your name?" the girl asked. "Master Splinter said I was named after some renaissance painter guy" Raph replied but then asked: "What that has to do with anything?" "Yes, Raphael is a famous renaissance artist but it's also the name of the archangel of healing" the girl replied.

"Okay, still, what does that have to do with anything?" Raph asked again. "Well… It's just a funny coincidence. You see, my name is Angel" the girl replied. "So, Angel, why those guys are after you?" Raph asked.

"John and the others? Well… I run away from home and joined in a motorcycle gang. We traveled all across the America together, just having fun and seeing the world" Angel started. "Well… When I joined in, I thought that was what it was all about but… Soon I realized that their "fun" was different from mine" Angel told.

"At first, it was just small things like pilfering and breaking stuff but then… I saw John beating a guy… I tried to save the man but it… It was too late. I told John that I didn't want to be part of his group anymore and was going to tell police about what had happened but… John told me that he would kill me if I left the group. I told him that I was going to stay but when I had a chance, I run away" Angel told.

"And now they found you here?" Raph asked. "Not exactly… They kidnapped my brother. And told me to come here to make an exchange: His life to mine… But there's no way they are going to keep their end of the promise… That's why I need to find my brother and save him…." Angel said.

"So, any ideas where he's kept?" Raph asked. "I have the address but… Last time I tried to get there, I wasn't even able to get anywhere near that place before those guys attacked me…It seems like they are cooperating with some local gang and there must be even more guys guarding him where he's kept as hostage" Angel replied. "I'll help you" Raph said.

Angel stared the boy a little bit surprised and burst in to laughter. "Sorry sweetie, I don't really see how you could help me when you can't even see where you're going" Angel apologized. "Don't look down on me. I can fight even with my eyes closed… Just tell me where the enemy is and I'll hit them" Raph replied.

"Sorry, I don't think it's…" Angel said. "Attack me" Raph ordered. "Attack you? Aren't you…" Angel started but Raph shouted over her: "JUST ATTACK!" Angel took a deep breath, quietly sneaked on Raph's left side and tried to hit his face.

Raph caught Angel's arm, pushed the girl down and locked her with his arms. "Wow, you're good" Angel said. "I told you I was" Raph smirked and let go of her. "Okay, I guess you are my best chance… And besides, if you get caught, I guess I can just leave you there" Angel said.

"You know… You should change your name to something more fitting for you. I think Lucifer would be pretty good" Raph commented. "Hey, you can come with me and help if you want but don't expect anything in return" Angel told. "You're so not cute" Raph said. "You wouldn't be saying that if you could see me" Angel replied smirking.

"This is the warehouse" Angel said. "So, what can you see?" Raph asked. "Lots of guys guarding the door" Angel told. "Be more specific. How many are there?" Raph inquired. "Um… Twelve" Angel replied. "Is there any other way in?" Raph asked.

"Well, we could try the windows on the back but it would take time to get there unnoticed… " Angel said. "Wait, actually… We could just ride straight in there" Angel suggested. "What? Wait a second lady if…" Raph started but Angel was already on her motorcycle. She grabbed Raph with her and drove straight at the men and continued through the doors. Inside, more men waiting for them.

"Attack them!" one of the men shouted. Angel drove at the men, who quickly dodged her. "Where's my brother?!" Angel yelled. "Somebody, stop that bike!" a man shouted. Someone threw a small bomb at them and both Angel and Raph fell off.

The men attacked on them. Raph heard steps coming at him and attacked the men, hoping that he would hit. Angel dodged the men attacking her and climbed over a box pile. There, she tried to find her brother but he wasn't in the room.

But there were few doors leading in to office rooms. Angel was going to scout them but was stopped by Raph's scream: "Angel! Little help here! Tell me where they are!" Angel looked down and saw the men sneaking around Raph and waiting chance to attack him from behind. Raph had already taken few hits.

"Uh… Six o'clock! Now two o'clock! Seven! Twelve o'clock!" Angel shouted. Suddenly, somebody threw a bomb at the box pile. Angel fell down screaming. "Angel! What happened?!" Raph shouted but couldn't hear an answer. Somebody hit him in the face and his nose started bleeding.

"Focus…" Raph thought. He listened very carefully for any kind of sounds. And just before a guy was to hit him again, Raph dodged and swept the guy's legs under him. A guy fell on the ground. Another one was coming from his left but Raph wasn't sure if he was going to get hit or kicked. Also, somebody was attacking him from his right.

Raph did a back flip and judging from the sounds, two guys had crashed against each other. "Okay, that's the last time I try a back flip while my nose is bleeding" Raph though and spit blood on the floor, holding his nose to make the bleeding stop.

Angel got up but a man caught her. He covered her mouth so Angel couldn't help Raph. But Angel bit the man and punched him causing the man letting her go. Angel kicked him down and run to Raph. "They're down now, good work Raphael" Angel said and dragged Raph towards the office rooms' doors.

"Where are we going?" Raph asked. "My brother must be locked in one of these office rooms…" Angel explained. "Ryan, can you hear me!?" Angel shouted. At first, there was no answer. Then, they could hear a weak shout: "Angel… Is that you?"

"Ryan! I came here to rescue you!" Angel yelled, heading towards the door where she had heard her brother's voice. But the door was locked. "We need a key…" Angel said. Raph fumbled the door and said: "Angel, get back, I got this"

Raph took few running steps and crashed against the door. It fell off and Angel got in. "Ryan… Are you okay… What did they do to you?" Angel asked. His brother looked really badly beaten up. "I was coming home at work when suddenly these guys got me… They beat me up asking where you were but I told them that I didn't know and wouldn't tell even if I knew" Ryan answered.

"We need to get you untied… Raphael, borrow me that" Angel said and snatched off one of Raph's sais to cut Ryan's ropes. "Sis… Where have you been these two months? Mom and Dad were so worried about you. I was so worried about you… What happened to your hair? And… Is that a lip piercing?" Ryan asked.

"We don't have time for this now, we need to get out here…" Angel said helping his brother up. "Um, what about him?" Ryan asked watching Raph, who was trying to find the door. Angel sighed, went to take Raph's hand and dragged him and Ryan out of the warehouse.

When they came out the warehouse, Angel suddenly stopped. "What is it?" Raph asked. "John" Angel replied. There were five guys on motorcycles standing before them. With them, there were also few street gangers. "My sweet Angel…" John said taking his helmet off.

"What you want John?!" Angel shouted. "Darling… It wasn't really nice from you… To run off like that…" John said. "It's not really my business but… Were you dating him?" Raph asked. "You're right, it's none of your business" Angel replied.

"You're just low! Kidnapping innocent people like that!" Angel yelled. "Calm down baby… We can still settle this…. Let's say that you come with us and we let your brother go. Sounds a good deal, right?" John replied

"Why should I agree on that?" Angel asked. "Because, if you don't, we'll kill you. All the three of you" John said pointing them with a gun. "Hah, I'd like to see you to try" Raph laughed. "Raphael, shut up, he's holding a gun" Angel said. "Oh…" Raph replied.

"Think about it… It's the best deal you can get… Besides… We had something really special. Let's forget all this and start it over" John said. Angel stayed quiet, thinking. "Fine" she finally answered. "But you really have to let my brother go..." Angel replied.

"Sure… He can ride one of these, right?" John asked. "Yes" Ryan replied. "Chuck, give him your bike" John ordered. A man stepped down on his motorcycle and walked with it to Angel's brother. "You two, get further" John ordered pointing Raph and Angel with a gun. Ryan got on the motorcycle.

"Now Angel, get here" John ordered. "Wait! Angel!" Ryan shouted and tried to get closer Angel but John pointed his gun at Ryan. "Ryan, get away from here!" Angel ordered. "You're my little sister! I can't just leave you behind and run!" Ryan shouted.

"If I do what John wants, he won't hurt me! I'll be fine, just go!" Angel yelled back. "No! I won't leave without you!" Ryan shouted. "Please… Ryan… Do it for me, go…" Angel said almost crying. "But…" Ryan insisted.

"Go!" Raph shouted. "I'll protect you sister so just go!" Raph yelled. Ryan kept looking at Raph, like analyzing him and finally said: "Okay, I trust you" Ryan drove off and Angel walked to John. John looked really pleased.

"That's it Angel, good girl… Now then… Let's get rid of this your new boyfriend" John said and pointed his gun at Raph. "Wait, he has nothing to do with this!" Angel told. "He hurt my friends and he will pay for it" John said and pulled the trigger.

"NO, DON'T!" Angel shouted and pushed John's hand. The bullet missed and Raph started running at them. "Angel, get off!" John yelled trying to shake the girl off. "I won't let you kill anyone ever again!" Angel shouted. John hit the girl on the face and Angel fell down on the ground.

"Now then… I'll take care of you" John said pointing the gun at Raph again. Raph took out his sais and threw one of them at John but it missed. "Hah! You actually thought you could hit me?" John laughed. "Not really, I was just buying time" Raph replied.

Suddenly, John felt sharp pain in his hand and dropped the gun. Raph's sai was stuck deep in it. "John, get off the bike" Angel ordered, pointing at him with the gun. "Angel, don't be ridic…." John stammered removing the sai. "GET OFF!" Angel shouted and pulled the trigger. John got off and Angel got on his motorcycle, grabbing Raph's sai. Then she shot it the air, threw the gun away and drove to get Raph.

"Hold on tight" Angel told. They drove away, some John's gangers still tailing at them. While they were escaping, they hear the police's sirens. "Angel the cops are coming" Raph said. "They won't catch us" Angel replied and added some speed. After they had got rid of their followers, Angel stopped the bike.

"That's it… I guess I need to get away from here" Angel said. "Are you going home now?" Raph asked getting off the motorcycle. "No. I'm going to travel some more. I originally went on this trip to find myself and I haven't done that yet" Angel answered.

"You know that road trip stuff sounds nice…" Raph said. "Then you should come with me" Angel replied smiling. "Don't flatter yourself, I said the road trip sounds nice, not going one with you" Raph said and continued: "But I really can't go anywhere right now. I need to find my father first…"

"How about… I'll come back here later. Then, we can go on a road trip together. If you just give me your phone number then…" Angel started. "No. If we're really meant to meet again then you'll find me. Just go in the sewers and call my name" Raph told.

"Aw, you're so cute Raphael" Angel teased pinching Raph's cheek. "I told you to call me Raph" Raph shouted. "Okay… Raphie" Angel replied. "Not Raphie, Ra…" Raph started but was silenced by something touching his lips. It was mainly something soft and warm, but there was also a small, cold metal part against his lips.

"You… What did you do?!" Raph shouted his face bright red. "Consider it as your reward" Angel replied cheerfully. "I didn't ask for that kind of reward!" Raph yelled. "It's not that big deal, I didn't even use my tongue" Angel jeered.

"You… That… THAT'S GROSS!" Raph shouted. "Anyways, do you need a ride back home?" Angel asked. "No… I think my sight is getting a little bit better… I can see dark figures so I will be fine as long as I find a manhole. You should go, before you get caught" Raph replied.

"Okay. Be sure to still be here when I get back" Angel told. "I won't promise anything" Raph said. "Yeah, sure, I'll come to find you anyways" Angel replied. "Okay, see you again!" Angel shouted before driving off. Raph could only see a dark figure getting further and further away. "It's a shame actually that I never got a chance to see her face… She actually might have been a real hottie…" Raph thought.

"Okay, I think I should call somebody to get me now" Raph thought and took his phone out. "Except… I can't see the buttons. I guess I'm able to call someone if I keep pushing the buttons" Raph thought and tried it. "Hi Raphie" Mikey answered.

"Argh, why it had to be Mikey… " Raph thought out loud. "Hey what do you mean it had to be me?" Mikey asked offended. "Nothing, can you give the phone to Don or Leo?" Raph asked. "No, they are busy, tell me what's going on" Mikey replied.

"Can you get Don to find me? I'm… Not really sure where I am" Raph said. "What you mean by that? Are you lost?" Mikey asked laughing. "Not really, I just can't see where I am. Tell Don to track me down or something I'll just…" Raph told but his phrase was cut when he dropped the phone. Somebody had attacked him.

"Raph, are you there?" Mikey asked. Raph tried to look around. There were lots of black shadows gathered around him. He took his sais out, ready to fight but felt a sting on his neck. Raph lost consciousness and fell on the ground.

"Guys, Raph called me… It sounded like trouble!" Mikey shouted rushing to where the others were. "Where is he?" Don asked. "He said he didn't know and asked if you could track him down" Mikey replied. "Okay, I'll try to track the signal" Don told.

After Don had found out the place where Raph had made his last call, the guys headed over there. But there wasn't a sign of anyone, anywhere. "Look" Don said pointing at something. Raph's shell cell, weapons, scarf and mask were lying on the ground. His scarf was stained with blood.

"He… He would never leave this stuff behind… " Don said. "Yeah… This scarf… He's been wearing it like… Since forever… Seriously, he never takes it off" Mikey said holding Raph's scarf. Leo just stood there without saying a word.

"Leo… Are you okay?" Don asked. "First Master Splinter disappears and then Raph… I… This can't be happening" Leo stammered. "I'm sure they're just fine… " Mikey tried to calm Leo down. "I really hope so… I really do" Leo stated.


	15. Chapter 15: Enemy of my enemy

Chapter 15: Enemy of my enemy

"It's all my fault" Leo muttered. He was sitting on the couch, his face buried in his hands. "Leo, it's not your fault" Don tried to calm him down. "No… I shouldn't have let Raph go there alone… " Leo mumbled. Two days had passed since Raph's disappearance. "Leo, there was no way you could've known this would happen. I'm sure Raph's okay" Don said putting his hands on Leo's shoulders.

"Yeah, we go out alone all the time and nothing bad ever happens…. Well, almost never anyways…. Except for those few times… Actually, almost every time… But we've always made through it just fine!" Mikey tried to encourage Leo. "Except those few times when someone got hurt really badly…" Mikey added and even he realized that he wasn't very reassuring. "Raph must have found something about Master Splinter and was taken away too… If only I…." Leo started.

"My son, at the times of storm, you should… Uh… Stand tall like a… tree and… I… Forgot how that saying went" Mikey said trying to imitate Master Splinter. "Mikey… That wasn't even close" Don noted. "All I can remember was something about wind, tree and hay… I'm not even sure anymore if it fit in this situation… Okay let's try something else" Mikey replied and cleared up his voice.

"What the heck you think you're doing? You're our leader! At times like this, a leader should stay strong and not to be weeping down here, swelling in self pity but to be out there looking for them!" Mikey yelled trying to sound like Raph. "Mikey, you're just making it worse" Don whispered. "I am? But I thought he…" Mikey started.

"Mikey is right" Leo said and stood up. "I can't be doing this now. I can't waste time just sitting down here, I need to go find Raph and Master Splinter…" Leo told determined. "Let's go on a patrol one more time… Maybe we missed something" Leo ordered.

Leo, Don and Mikey were driving around the city on the new battle van Don had built. "Still no sign of Master Splinter?" Leo asked. "No… I've tried to track down his shell cell but it's probably destroyed… " Don replied. "We should leave the car and look around the area more carefully" Leo told.

They parked the car and got out."Let's try not to get too far away from each other, got it?" Leo instructed. "Don't worry, I surely don't want to get snatched away" Mikey replied clinging on Don. Don glared at him and pushed Mikey away.

They climbed on the roof and began to search the alleys for any sign of their Master or the lost brother. But instead, they spotted something else. "The Foot" Don whispered. "They seem to be after that man in the black suit over there" Leo replied looking at the man that the Foot ninjas were following. "Should we try to stop them?" Mikey asked.

When Leo was about to reply, the Foot attacked the man. "Let's go!" Leo yelled and they jumped down to help the man. The foot ninjas were about to attack them but suddenly they heard a loud shout: "STOP!" The foot ninjas stopped and bowed down as a dark figure was drawing near from the shadows.

"No.. That can't be… But… How…." Leo stuttered. The dark figure had reached the streetlight's spotlight and was now clearly visible. Before them was standing no other than the Shredder himself. Alive. "I killed you….This time, I really did. I made sure that you were dead so how…?" Leo asked confused.

"Hand that man over to me and I let you go" the Shredder told. Even though Leo didn't know why the Foot was after the man in suit, he knew that whatever the Shredder was plotting it couldn't be anything good and thus Leo shouldn't let the Shredder get the man.

"No!" Leo yelled and pointed his sword towards the Shredder. "Do you even know what you are trying to protect?" the Shredder asked. "I don't let you hurt an innocent person!" Leo yelled. The Shredder burst into a laughter.

"An innocent person? That thing is neither…" the Shredder told. "The thing you are trying to protect is an alien called an utrom and he's here to take over the Earth. If you really want to protect the innocent, you should just hand him over to me" the Shredder said.

"That's just too absurd! Aliens? I'm not believing even a word that you're saying! And even if it were true, you're still up to no good! We won't hand him over to you!" Leo yelled. The other two were standing on the both sides of Leo, ready to back him up in a fight.

"So you are going this far just to oppose me?" the Shredder asked. "Of course we will! You're evil and there's no way we would be siding with you!" Leo yelled. "I'm evil? You are the ones who have been getting in my way while I have been trying to protect this planet" the Shredder told.

"You tried to kill us and burned down April's home! No way that's not evil!" Mikey yelled. "Yeah, besides, the enemy of our master is also our enemy!" Leo shouted. "Your master… Why do you trust that man so much even though he's been lying and hiding things all along? What good has that man really done for you? " the Shredder asked.

"He's our father! He raised us and taught us the way of ninjutsu" Leo replied. "He's not your real father. Besides, what kind of father would make their children to live under the streets, hiding in the sewers, not being able to see the sunlight for fifteen years? He's only a kidnapper, nothing more" the Shredder told.

"You… Don't dare to insult Master Splinter like that!" Leo shouted and attacked the Shredder. The Shredder clashed his claw against Leo's swords. "Why? That man isn't the saint you believe he is. In the last fight, didn't he abandon you when it seemed like you were going to lose?" the Shredder asked.

"He didn't abandon us, he was taken away! You… You are probably the one who did it!" Leo yelled fencing against the Shredder who kept blocking his attacks. "If I had done it, I wouldn't have been so quiet about it. Face it, your dear sensei cowardly ran away and left you all behind!" the Shredder replied.

Leo tried to clash his sword against the Shredder's throat but his attack was blocked and Leo was knocked down in the ground. Mikey and Don tried to attack the Shredder but the Shredder ordered the Foot ninjas attack them and capture the suit man.

The situation seemed hopeless but suddenly an unexpected help came. More suit men appeared and some of them were holding swords similar to the sword of Tengu. The Shredder noticed that they were about to be overpowered.

"It seems that I have no other choice…" the Shredder told. At first Leo thought that the Shredder was going to back off but instead, he stood still for a moment. Then suddenly, he rushed with an incredible speed towards one of the suit men and attacked him. One after another the Shredder took down the suit men. But all of sudden, he attacked Mikey.

Mikey was hit against a wall and then fell face on the ground. "MIKEY!" both Don and Leo yelled and run to their hurt brother. The Shredder stopped. He stood still, like he was shocked. The Shredder tried to walk closer to Mikey but suddenly swayed onwards. A foot ninja came to help him to stay upright and they fled.

"Mikey?! Can you hear me?! Mikey, please, wake up!" Leo yelled holding his unconscious brother. Mikey's nose and mouth were bleeding. "We need to get him home immediately…" Don told. "No, there's no time, come with us" a suit man told.

Leo wasn't really sure if they should trust the man but there wasn't really much choice. They were taken in a car and Leo and Don were put in the handcuffs and blindfolds. "Wha-" Leo yelled. "Don't worry, it's going to be okay. We just need to make sure that our hideout is going to stay as a secret. We're going to heal your friend, I promise" the man said.

"This seems more like a kidnap to me" Leo told. "After we have helped your friend we will let you go" the man told. After a while, the car was stopped. They were forced to walk blindfolded somewhere and suddenly heard a loud beep.

The men searched Leo's and Don's pockets and took out their shell cells. "You have to leave these here. Don't worry, you'll get them back later" the man told. After walking a while they got inside of some kind of vehicle and continued their journey.

The vehicle stopped and they were lead somewhere. They heard to door being locked and their blindfolds and handcuffs were removed. They were standing in a completely white room with a sofa, few chairs, a table and few cabinets in it. There were two doors leading out of the room. "What's going on? Where's Mikey?" Leo asked. "Our doctors will take care of him. Meanwhile, we need to have you wait here" the man in the suit told.

"What's with all the security act? Are some kind of agents?" Don asked. "Well… In a way yes but still no…" the man replied. "As the one known as the Shredder told you, we really are aliens called utroms. But we mean you no harm. We're not here to take over the Earth" the man told.

"Then why are you here?" Leo asked. "Well…" the man said and headed towards one of the cabinets. "We are trying to capture a creature called Cacrux" the man told opening the cabinet's doors. "Why are you after it?" Leo asked. The man took out some cookies and bottle of wine.

"Cacrux is the most wanted criminal in the universe. It has destroyed hundreds of planets and killed more living creatures than all the other criminals combined. Our original home planet was also destroyed by it billions years ago" the man told while he was pouring the wine on glasses.

"Just how old is that creature?" Leo asked. "No-one knows for sure. It's very old and it cannot be destroyed with any known weapon. The only thing known to weaken it is glarixium, a crystal like mineral. But it's only enough to restrain its power, not to destroy it completely" the man explained and offered the wine glasses and the cookies to Leo and Don. "No thanks" Leo told and added: "We can't drink alcohol, we're minors" The man put the glasses and plate away.

"There's an old legend about Cacrux's birth. There was a group of powerful wizards that wanted to create an invincible creature. In order to do so, they performed a spell that made a star collapse and turned it into a living thing. But because they were afraid that Cacrux might destroy the whole universe, they made him one weakness. The weakness was its twin star Glarix.

As Glarix collapsed, it turned into a crystal asteroid and began its journey across the universe. But the creation of Cacrux and Glarix required more than the wizards had expected. All the wizards were turned in to dust that scattered all around the universe.

So Cacrux was left without anyone to control it. Cacrux wandered across the universe causing chaos and destruction until the day of its capture" the man told.

"If this Cacrux is so dangerous and it really is on Earth, then how come nothing had happened yet?" Don asked.

"Earth centuries ago, we were able to finally catch Cacrux and imprisoned its pieces inside glarixium crystals. We were supposed to transport it in to Glarix and imprison it there permanently. Even though Cacrux was unable to move, its telepathy was still working. Cacrux was able to turn one of us on its side and make a riot occur. It caused our airship to crash towards the Earth and to explode in the Earth's atmosphere. The pieces of Cacrux were scattered all over the world. The crew was able to escape in the Earth with an emergency shuttle" the man told.

"We weren't able to contact our home planet or built an airship or a teleport because Earth's technology wasn't advanced enough. So we decided to wait. We utroms live longer than you humans so waiting a millennium or a two isn't really a big deal to us. Meanwhile, we tried to adapt with the earthlings' way of life and find the pieces Cacrux as well as what still was left of our ship" the man continued his story.

"The place where first landed was ancient Japan. We soon found out that one of the pieces of Cacrux had landed there and its crystal prison had been broken. A clan of earth soldiers, ninjas, were bravely trying to fight against it but their power alone wasn't enough. So we gave them one of our swords. With that sword, the leader of the Ashi clan was able to knock the piece of Cacrux down and we were able to prison him again.

We gave the task of guarding the piece of Cacrux to the Ashi clan and told them we would come to get it when we had found the remaining pieces. The sword the clan leader used to defeat the piece of Cacrux was given to the clan as the mark of our friendship.

When we had a chance, we left Japan to search the other pieces of Cacrux. We were able to find the most of the remaining of our airship here in the North America but there's still not a trace of the other pieces of Cacrux but I know they can't be far away. They are just well hidden but sooner or later we'll find them" the man told.

"So why the Foot clan is after you?" Leo asked. "I'm not sure but I think their leader has some kind of connection with Cacrux" the suit man told. "Wait a second… The Japanese word "ashi" means "foot". So it's possible that ashi clan is…" Don started. "The Foot clan" Leo finished. "Yeah. And maybe the Sword of Tengu is the sword the utroms gave the Foot clan leader" Don said.

"Master Splinter told his master used to own the sword so it must have passed from the leader to another. But how it ended up in the Museum instead of the Shredder who as the leader of the Foot clan was supposed to be its rightful owner?" Leo asked.

"That's something we know nothing about. But if the Foot clan that Shredder is leading is really the Ashi clan then the Shredder really must have been in a contact with Cacrux. I'm afraid that just like that one utrom in the past, the Shredder too is under the control of Cacrux" the man told.

"And if he is, he's probably after you because you're trying to capture Cacrux again" Don concluded. "That means both them and us are after each other. But how about you? On which side you three are?" the man asked.

"We're not really even part of all that. We're just trying to find our Master and our brother. Have you seen them? Our Master is middle aged man with long black hair and beard. His left eye is covered with a bandage. Our brother is called Raphael and he has short black hair and bright green eyes. He's a little bit shorter than me and has really short temper" Leo replied.

"I'm sorry, I haven't seen them" the suit man told. "I see… " Leo said a little bit disappointed. "I'll be sure to tell you if we find them though" the man replied. "Thanks" Leo told. A little bit over an hour had passed since they had arrived in that room. And soon they got some good news.

"Your friend will be fine with some rest. We'll take you back to place we found you so I'll ask you to let us put blindfolds and handcuffs on you again. Sorry, I know it's a little bit rude that we don't trust you even this much but we can't afford our headquarters to be found" the suit man told.

So once again, they were blindfolded and transported away. When they were able to see again, they were back in the street where they had fought against the Foot earlier that day. The suit men helped the guys to carry Mikey in their van. After Mikey was safely in, the suit men left. The teenagers also headed to their home.

When the boys were gone, April had been watching television, hoping that she could find some clues of the missing ones from the news. Suddenly the door opened and the guys came back. Leo and Don were carrying Mikey who was still unconscious. "God, what happened to you? Is Mikey okay?" April asked and hurried to help them.

"The Shredder happened" Leo told. "The Shredder? But you said he's dead" April said. "That's what we thought too" Leo replied. They lied Mikey down on the couch. "I know it doesn't make any sense but I'm sure that I killed the Shredder yet he's still alive" Leo said.

"Maybe the Shredder you met today was a different person?" April suggested. "It's possible but the way he talked was like he really was the one who had been fighting against us the whole time" Leo told. "I don't know… Something did seem a little off with that Shredder…. Like when he went all berserk but then suddenly just stopped attacking… " Don told.

"Maybe it's somehow related to Cacrux" Leo pondered. "Cacrux?" April asked. Leo and Don told April everything the suit man had told them in the white room. "I see… So unlike we thought, the Shredder is not the mastermind behind all this but instead he's controlled by this 'Cacrux' " April said.

"It's possible that he doesn't even realize that he's been used" Leo said. "But no matter what, I can't still forgive him for all that he has done to us" he added. "Do you think the Shredder has something to do with Master Splinter and Raph's disappearances?" Don asked. "I'm sure that he does" Leo told.

After the fight against the aliens and the three teenagers, the Shredder returned the Foot clan's headquarters. He took an elevator up and walked in his office room that was right on the top of the Foot Clan building.

In front of the table he stopped and placed his hands on his helmet. Someone was sitting behind the table. "Ah… I see that you are back. So how was your first mission…" a man behind the table asked. The Shredder took his helmet off. "…Nagi?" Oroku Saki finished his phrase gazing gently the person in front of him. Raph's hazy eyes met with Saki's. He was holding the Shredder's helmet on his hands. "Father…" Raph said melancholically.


End file.
